Start Date: September 2011

ID #: 69296

Principal Investigator: Kathryn Henderson, PhD

Organization: Yale University

Funding Round: Round 6

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The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is in the process of writing new regulations for the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) in response to the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Regulations are expected to draw heavily upon recommendations made in the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 2010 report on the CACFP, which names obesity as a key reason for CACFP revision. This study will test the impact of these recommendations, providing critical data to the USDA as it develops its proposed and final rule on the CACFP. The specific aims of this study are to: 1) test the effect on preschoolers’ dietary intake of changes recommended by the 2010 IOM report on the CACFP; 2) test the effect on preschoolers’ intake of enhancing, through environmental and behavioral interventions, the IOM’s recommended changes; and 3) assess these effects during target meals within a controlled laboratory paradigm, and in the child-care setting with meals and over a 24-hour period. Four hundred 3-to 5-year-old children enrolled in CACFP-participating preschools in Connecticut will participate. Emphasis will be placed on reaching African American and Hispanic children and children who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals under CACFP. Preliminary data will be provided in advance of the June 2012 publishing of the USDA’s proposed rule, and final results will be provided at least seven months prior to the USDA’s publishing of the final rule in fall 2013. Information also will be shared with state departments responsible for training CACFP participants in compliance.

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