Getting Started with CACFP

Child and Adult Care Centers, Emergency Shelters, Head Starts, and At-Risk sponsors who wish to participate in the CACFP in Arizona must complete a series of trainings and submit applications to ADE for assessment of the organization's financial viability, administrative capability, and accountability for Federal funds.

The steps below detail the application process for CACFP in Arizona. 

Facilities must meet certain eligibility criteria to operate the CACFP. Further, being a federally-funded program, there are a number of program requirements that must be upheld to sustain operations.

Please view the Introduction to the CACFP online training prior to beginning the applications process to assess eligibility and interest for the program.

Once complete, please print the training certificate as it will be needed in the following application steps.

After assessing your eligibility and interest to operate the CACFP, a series of documents, or Intent to Apply Packet, must be sent to ADE as notification of your intent to apply. For information about the documents and detailed guidance on how to correctly complete them are outlined in How to Complete & Submit the Intent to Apply Packet- Step by Step Instruction training. Missing or incorrect information can significantly delay or prevent the ability to advance in the application process.

 

Intent to Apply Packet- Required Documents:

 

Once you have a complete Intent to Apply packet, please mail your packet to the following address:

Arizona Department of Education

Health and Nutrition Services Division

1535 West Jefferson Street, Bin #7

Phoenix, AZ 85007

 

After submission, please advance to Step 3 to begin training completion. You will be notified by ADE when your packet is received.

As your Intent to Apply packet is being received and processed by ADE, move on to Step 3 of the process by completing required CACFP training. The required online CACFP Essentials Series covers various Nutrition, Administration, and Infant Feeding topics and each training will take between 0.25 - 1 hour to complete. These trainings are self-paced and can be completed on a day and time that works best for you. It will take approximately six hours to complete all required Essentials Series' trainings.

At the end of each training, you will be asked to click a link to complete a survey and obtain a training certificate. Please complete the survey and customize and keep each training certificate because they will be collected by ADE for verification of training completion in future application steps. If you encounter any issues customizing your training certificate, please reference the Training Certificate FAQ.

 

Civil Rights Training (Required)

  • Online Course: Civil Rights Compliance for Child Nutrition Operators (English) (Spanish) (Self-Guided, 1 Hour)

 

Nutrition Essentials (Required):

 

Administration Essentials (Required):

 

Infant Feeding Essentials (Required for Facilities Licensed for Infants Only):

Congratulations on reaching step 4 of the applications process! This step requires you submit a Management Plan and Budget in our CNP Management Plans and Budgets online system. Please note, you cannot advance to this step until a complete Intent to Apply packet has been received and processed by ADE.

 

Accessing the System:

First, you must gain access to ADE's online systems. You should have received an email from [email protected] and [email protected] indicating your Intent to Apply has been processed and your organization has been established in ADE's systems. Once that email is received, the individual established as your Entity Administrator must grant you access to two systems:

  1. CNP Management Plans and Budgets - Sponsors
  2. CNPWeb - CAC Center Sponsors

For assistance, please use ADEConnect's How to Videos should you need help assigning the ADEConnect roles to yourself or someone else within your organization.

 

Completing the Management Plan and Budget:

Once you have gained permissions to the CNP Management Plans and Budgets system, you may begin completing your management plan and budget.

Management Plan: Your Management Plan outlines your institution’s policies and procedures related to administering and monitoring the CACFP. The information provided will be used by ADE to assess your administrative capability, internal controls for accountability, and financial viability to operate a federally-funded child nutrition program.

 

Management Plan Forms and Resources:

 

 

 

 

 

Budget: Your CACFP budget will project the amount you anticipate receiving in reimbursement and the allowable program expenses you anticipate spending it on.

Budget Resources:

Once you have submitted your Management Plan and Budget, your assigned program specialist will schedule a Pre-Approval Visit.

The Pre-Approval Visit is an opportunity for ADE to determine if your processes are consistent with program regulations or if you need some additional support prior to official program approval.

Congratulations! You have reached the final step of the CACFP applications process. Once your Management Plan and Budget have been approved, you will transfer approved information into the CNPWeb Site and Sponsor applications.

 

Resources:

 

Once submitted, your assigned program specialist will review your CNPWeb site and sponsor applications. If there are errors, they will request revisions. If/when the applications are free of errors, your application will be approved, and you will be ready to begin claiming for CACFP operations.