Meal Appeal for CACFP

Meal Appeal Main Page	Resources for Adults	Resources for Children	Resources for Infants

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Meal Appeal for CACFP

Child nutrition professionals can use Meal Appeal tools and ideas to create healthy meals that look appealing, taste great and comply with federal requirements. This site provides tools to move ahead of the curve and offer a variety of foods, as well as introduce new foods, that children are sure to enjoy.
If you would like to share tips for how to boost meal appeal, please submit your ideas to MealAppeal@TexasAgriculture.gov

Choose an age group below to access best practices, planning tools and more resources!
Adults	Children	Infants

Click on the image below to download the new Meal Appeal Toolkit for CACFP

Click the image below to download the Top 10 Easy Wins to boost your meal appeal!

Family Style Meal Service
Use these Family Style Meal Service resources to help you prepare and support children, train staff, and meet CACFP meal pattern requirements to successfully serve meals family style.

NEW! School Meals Design Guide

This No Kid Hungry-created guide contains ready-to-use activities and tools for nutrition teams to make meal programs more student-centered.

Featuring:

Activating Students – activities and tools to include students in the meal program design and gain authentic insights on the participants served.

Engaging Caregivers – activities to help engage with caregivers into the planning process and build trust in the community around the meal programs.

Connecting with Community – resources on how to engage the broader community and collaboratively design meal programs.

Human-Centered Design 101 - resources to help center students and communities in the meal design process.

CACFP Breakfast Menu Planners - Explore the Breakfast menu planner from Team Nutrition that contains sample menus, checklists, menu planning activities, and recipes. Available in English and Spanish.

CACFP Snack Menu Planners - Explore the Snack menu planner from Team Nutrition that contains sample menus, checklists, menu planning activities, and recipes. Available in English and Spanish.

The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) lists these resources and providers as a service to school nutrition professionals.
This list does not constitute an endorsement or verification of accuracy on the part of TDA.

Assistance available in English and Spanish. Please call 877-TEX-MEAL (877-839-6325) for help. Additional translations services available as well.

In accordance with federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity.

Program information may be made available in languages other than English. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication to obtain program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language), should contact the responsible state or local agency that administers the program or USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339.

To file a program discrimination complaint, a Complainant should complete a Form AD-3027, USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form which can be obtained online at: https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ad-3027.pdf, from any USDA office, by calling (866) 632-9992, or by writing a letter addressed to USDA. The letter must contain the complainant’s name, address, telephone number, and a written description of the alleged discriminatory action in sufficient detail to inform the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (ASCR) about the nature and date of an alleged civil rights violation. The completed AD-3027 form or letter must be submitted to USDA by:

1. Mail:

U.S. Department of Agriculture
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; or

2. Fax: (833) 256-1665 or (202) 690-7442; or

3. Email: program.intake@usda.gov.

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.