Does Food Program Pay Enough

[mismatchedsocks]

I am a tier one, and most of my kids qualify for that tier too. I have 8 kids here full time, 2 meals and one snack a day and 2 kids before and after school. I get between $800-$900 a month. For me its worth the 2 minutes of online claiming a day, then the 3 visits a year. I do alot of big pot, casserole cooking, for lunches/dinners and oatmeal, pancakes, and big batches of "cheaper" things then cold cereal or poptarts/etc.

If I was on tier two I would make half of that and any income is worth it for me. Up to you and how easy your food programs are.

[Heidi]

I have 5 kids enrolled. One is on the higher Tier, the other 4 are on the lower tier. I do am snack, lunch, and dinner (pm snack, but it meets the components of dinner, so I can claim it that way it our program).

My last check was $320

[Country Kids]

I think our program is pretty hard to do it seems. I know very few people that are on it. They really discourage casseroles, crock pot meals, anything that is mixed together. I have none of my own children home to eat during the day so that wouldn't help. Also, from what I remember they go on what school district you are in, not what your parents qualify for.

I have an appointment later in the month, well they still need to make it. The day I called the lady acted like they were never in the office and some of her questions were worded a little strange. Things she should have known she was asking wrong. Our nearest food program is 2 hours away so if I have questions its not like I can have someone come over from the office and clarify paperwork or anything.

[mismatchedsocks]

I understand why they discourage casseroles because of amount of meat/veggies, but its so much easier, and I load in the veggies so there never is a question! Sounds like you might want to contact a provider in the area to see how it works maybe??

[Heidi]

Your school district can automatically get you into the higher bracket, but so can your familiy income (and you can sometimes get reimbursed for your kids if your income is low enough). Your families will also fill out income forms, to see which rate they qualify for.

What state are you in? BTW, I pm'd you about homeschooling...

[VTMom]

October was the first month I was on it and I'm pleased so far. I was planning on using the extra money to increase our organic intake, but I received more then I expected. How often does that happen? I didn't realize that our state also reimburses on top of the federal amount. Not sure if your state does this as well. I believe it covers, or at least comes really close to covering the costs of food for my daycare kids. Not at all what I expected! (I have one child on Tier 1 (higher reimbursement) and 3 on Tier 2)

Good luck!

[VanessaEO]

I'm assuming that the food program is nationwide, because its subsidized by the USDA and the CACFP (Child and Adult Care Food Program).

You can qualify by tier 1 (higher reimbursement rates) based on your school district or based on your household income.

You can do a mixed tier system if your parents might qualify, for free or reduced school lunch - they would qualify you to receive a higher reimbursement rate for their children. So you might have Johnny and Bobby on tier 1 and Lily and Suzy on Tier 2.

Or you can just be on tier 2.

When I first started daycare, I qualified based on my household income, and they allowed me to include my own children in the reimbursement. Now that I'm making more money, I no longer qualify within my household.

Now I qualify based on where I live/through my school district. I am not allowed to claim my own children in the reimbursement schedule.

Here are the rates of reimbursement:
Tier I
Breakfast $1.19
Lunch/Dinner $2.22
Snack $0.66

Tier II
Breakfast $0.44
Lunch/Dinner $1.34
Snack $0.18

My understand is that you can only be approved for two meals and one snack per day. But based on what you serve, they approve you for the most amount of $$ possible. (So they will disallow a snack to give you a breakfast, for example)

Anyway - those rates are published online, so you can go through and figure out how much you would receive based on your enrollment.

Also, my sponsor works with Minute Menu Kids - I wouldn't choose a sponsor that didn't work with an online program like that. It WORKS really well for me. MMK just released an iphone app, so that might make it easier for some.