Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP): Improper Payments Data Collection Pilot Project

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) subsidizes nutritious meals served to eligible children and functionally impaired adults participating in family day care homes, day care facilities, emergency shelters, and afterschool programs. This report discusses the results of a pretest and pilot study that explored four methods for estimating erroneous meal claim payments in CACFP nationally. As a result of the pilot study, the authors recommend the Parent Recall Method due to its relatively low cost and consistency with estimates based on direct observations of meals served.