Milk Waste Reduction Strategies in Childcare Centers

More than 66% of U.S. preschoolers attend a childcare setting daily, and up to 40% of the milk served there is wasted. The proposed study aims to estimate and reduce preschoolers' milk waste in childcare centers in Illinois that participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).

We are going to be developing a toolkit for child care providers that will help them to reduce food waste in childcare centers while also not pressuring the children to finish their foods off of their plate.

The CACFP is a federal nutrition program that reimburses childcare providers for serving healthy meals and snacks to children. The CACFP requires participating childcare providers to serve milk at breakfast and lunch. They also encourage the providers to serve milk at afternoon snack time. I'm trying to look at if we can make a small change where the providers can serve water during lunch, and then serve milk at breakfast and afternoon snack, to see if that reduces or has any effect on the children's milk consumption plus the milk waste.