Child and Adult Care Food Program

According to CACFP regulations, household contact means a contact made by a sponsoring organization or a State Agency to an adult member of a household with a child in a family day care home or a child care center. The purpose of the contact is to verify the attendance and enrollment of the child and the specific meal service(s) which the child routinely receives in care. Household contact does not apply to adult day care facilities.

Policy Instruction 05-11 outlines the requirements for sponsoring organization with regard to conducting household contacts.

In addition, State Agency staff may perform household contacts following discrepancies that occur during a program review. When reviewing independent centers or sponsoring organizations, State Agency staff may contact households when one or more of the following situations occur:

1.	Meal counts are inconsistent with attendance records
2.	Information on the Applications for Free and Reduced-Price Meals is not current or has been altered in any fashion, e.g. erased or white out.
3.	A significant number of weekend, night, and/or holiday meals and snacks are claimed for reimbursement.
4.	Prior day’s meals counts are a great deal higher than the attendance on the day of review.
5.	A significant number of meals served and claimed that does not correspond to the information on the enrollment form.
6.	Any other discrepancy related to the accountability of meal counts and attendance.

State Agency staff may also require a sponsoring organization to perform household contacts as part of its corrective action to a Program review.

Refer to the Household Contact section on the CACFP web page for a prototype script, contact letter, and contact form.

CACFP regulations require the use of household contacts beginning April 1, 2005.