The state’s federally-funded program that provides healthy meals and snacks to child care centers, afterschool programs, homeless shelters and adult daycare centers has implemented a series of measures in the San Luis Valley to assist families coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state’s health department announced that the Colorado Child and Adult Care Food Program, which served 18 million meals in 2019, has distributed community-supported agriculture boxes to child care home providers in the valley. Those entities are also invited to order produce from a local food distributor with an 80% subsidy.

Those initiatives will continue through the end of October. The program also will assist recipients with ordering, preparing and serving the fresh food. Videos that teach child care providers about food safety and parental engagement are available online.

According to Hunger Free Colorado, providers in the state can claim reimbursement for two meals and one snack or two snacks and one meal per child per day. Due to the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has granted a number of waivers for program requirements.

For after school programs, the USDA advised that “operators may consider offering online homework assistance, activity packets, electronic games and books, or other e-learning activities for the children to partake in at home….Although children are not required to participate in or complete the activity in order to receive an afterschool meal or snack, the afterschool care center must offer the activity.”