The mini-grants are intended for Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) family child care providers and CACFP sponsoring organizations. These are individuals and organizations already committed to quality child care, school readiness, healthy children, food insecurity solutions and childhood obesity prevention. The mini-grant projects funded focus on one of 4 objectives:
Overall quality of health and wellness in child care settings
Enhancing nutrition and healthy eating habits in child care settings
Enhancing physical activity in child care settings
Engaging parents in education of health and wellness via child care provider relationships
Awardees and projects listed below.
Quotes from our 2016 CACFP Mini-Grant Awardees
Family Child Care Provider Awardees
Growing Branch Child Care, Heather Zellman (MN) Outdoor Kitchen and Veggie Garden
"This mini-grant is going to help us reach our goals of health and wellness in our program! Our goals are to provide lots of space for the children to run and play and to learn about the food they eat. The children will pretend play in the outdoor kitchen as they watch veggies grow from seed to harvest. The children will be able to see the full spectrum of the food growing process and help us prepare and try the foods we grow." ~Heather Zellman
Delia Brager (MA) Improving Health, Safety and Nutrition in my Childcare setting
"I strive to offer a safe, healthy and warm loving environment for the children in my care. This mini-grant is going to help me take that one step further by enabling me to purchase materials for my child care that encourage family style dining, proper hygiene, and safe physical play." ~ Delia Brager
"I was excited when I found out that I had received the grant. I knew that I needed more to offer my daycare children to better their physical health but financially unable to do it, until now, with the help of this grant. My daycare parents were thrilled to know that I was doing everything I could to offer a better environment for their children." ~ Sheila Hackworth
Shay Love Child Care, La Shawn Anderson (FL) Physical Activity and Parent Education
Jennifer Sargent (IL) Little Chefs
"I regularly take children in my care that others could not accept because of their food needs. I maintain a safe kitchen for all of these children with severe allergies, food intolerances and other dietary restrictions. Maintaining a safe kitchen can be tricky with different foods being an issue for different children. This mini-grant enables me to purchase tools and equipment that the children can use during food preparation as well as cutting boards that help avoid cross contamination as we work together in the kitchen. I'm excited to enable the children to help more with food preparation and get them more involved with their food process encouraging healthy eating and using the "fresh is best" principle." ~ Jennifer Sargent
First Steps Daycare, Roxanne Cummings (ME) Project Ball
"Living in Maine the opportunities for active outdoor play can be challenging. This kit would certainly encourage lots of running, kicking, catching, and teamwork! Thank you again for the wonderful opportunity. The kids are going to be thrilled!" ~Roxanne Cummings
Deb's Daycare, Debbie Wampfler (WI), Gardening and Cooking with Kids
"I was very excited and shared the news with the parents right away when I found out I am to receive this grant. It will enable me to purchase materials to engage children and parents further in a project that we are working on toward making healthy choices, growing fresh vegetables with their own garden; as well as cooking with children to put a value on healthy meals and again making choices on what you eat. The parents were excited to hear about it and to partake in the parent night of cooking pizzas and planting pizza gardens with their kids. I'm hoping with a few more of these "parent nights" it will become apart of their everyday lives of making healthy choices and modeling that with their children." ~ Debbie Wampfler
The Larick Early Learning Center, Amy Larick, (IA) Health and Wellness Best Practices Indoors and Out
“I was very excited to learn I was selected to receive this mini-grant. There are so many health and wellness best practices I have been wanting to implement and this grant helps make that possible. Receiving the grant is validation for me that working hard and pursuing quality is worth the extra time and effort. Thank you T&L Foundation for your generosity and support!” ~ Amy Larick
SomePlace Special Home Care, Audrey Townsend (NC) Yoga For Kids
Paideia Preparatory Academy, Angela Jones (TN) Edible Learning: Study.Grow.Eat
"We are so happy we were awarded the mini-grant to fund our project "Edible Learning: Study. Grow. Eat." The mini- grant enables us to enhance our students' nutrition and healthy eating habits as they are exposed to a variety of fruits and vegetables. Similarly, gardens can build a strong community between the academy and engaging our parents about how they can alter eating habits at home." ~Angela Jones
Rosalina Bobadilla (CA) Active Play - Basketball Goal
"Being awarded this mini-grant makes it so we can actively and intentionally engage many children of mixed ages in physical play. We will be including a new basketball goal to use thinking skills to investigate, ask questions, solve problems, make predictions, and test our ideas. This new basketball goal will allow us to engage many players at once as they shoot from all angles. Plus, we know physical development is extremely important in developing gross-motor skills like jumping, running, throwing, and bouncing." ~Rosalina Bobadilla
Apple Valley Family Child Care, Michelle Slimak (CT) Breastfeeding Support
"I was so happy to learn that my program was an awardee of the mini-grant, I can now set up a separate and comfortable breastfeeding space in my child care. I am now finding more and more mothers are interested in breastfeeding their children, and not just pumping, but actually coming to the program to feed on their lunch or break. It is really great, and I would like to support the mothers with a comfortable place to feed their babies." ~ Michelle Slimak
Angie's Little Angels, Angela Meagher (MN) Retractable Driveway Guard and Safety Sign
"I was so surprised and extremely grateful to receive this grant! It will bring some piece of mind to me and my families, knowing that our children are able to more safely participate in large motor physical activities. Thank you!" ~ Angela Meagher CACFP Sponsor Awardees
Evergreen Child Care, Inc (CA) Ready, Set & Go
"Upon receiving the great news that we were one of the agencies awarded the T&L Foundation mini-grant, we were thrilled and excited to launch our “Ready, Set, Go!” project. The materials purchased will help our 400 day care providers expand their knowledge about nutrition and portion control and instill what they will be learning in t their everyday practices. This was actually the first time we, Erika and Rina, have written a grant together and we were pleased to know that we got the grant. We are honored and forever grateful that the T&L Foundation chose our agency." ~ Evergreen Child Care, Inc
"We are truly thankful to be selected as a recipient of a T&L Foundation mini-grant. Learning that that there were so many applicants has fueled our motivation to prove that we are deserving of this award. In our case, rather than the award being called a “grant,” a more appropriate term may be “scholarship” as the money will fund education for o our staff. This education will, in turn, be transferred to the providers we serve making this mini-grant an excellent investment of T&L funds." ~ Heartland Child Nutrition
