CACFP Meal Pattern-Whole Grains

This page may contain affiliate links. Learn More.

Including the whole grains requirement for the food program is not as hard as you think and this will make it even easier! Whole grain rich meals for breakfast, lunch, or snack are doable. If you’re wondering about the child and adult care food program for daycare providers, check this out.

One whole grain food must be served per day. This can be for breakfast, lunch, supper, or snack. This means that you can serve your whole grain item at breakfast and not worry about it for the rest of the day.

Your food program is allowed to disallow foods at their discretion so check with them and make sure the items you choose from the list are creditable by the program you’re on.

Check out this daycare food menu meal planning guide for more ideas on how to plan out your menus well. These resources are going to be a great help to you! And if you want to buy menus already planned out, check out Daycare Time Solutions for monthly menu plans, click on shop all and menu plans for menus that meet food program requirements. Or if you want a sheet with a sample week and shopping list to get you started, check out this planning pack.

Sometimes we get bogged down in thinking that we need to serve whole grains at every meal, but that’s not the case. We just need one. This could be in pasta, bread, buns, muffins, crackers, cereals, etc.

Providers must document their menu showing whole grains are served, such as whole wheat bread, whole grain-rich, etc. So, when you fill out your menus, just put -wg behind the food item and you’re done.

If whole grains are not served, the meal with the lowest reimbursement rate will be disallowed and not reimbursed.

All children do not have to be in attendance when the whole grain is served. The rules are once per day for the facility, not per child. If the facility has to close for extenuating circumstances and the planned whole grain meal is not served, the facility will not be penalized for the missed meal as long as it is demonstrated that the meal was planned. For more information from USDA about whole grains, check this out.

Whole grain food for breakfast

I like to just simply knock it out at breakfast time because then I’m done stressing about it for the day. I mean, get it over with. So whole grain cereals, pancakes, breads, etc are the way I go.

Whole grain rich

Check out the requirements from USDA on what qualifies as a whole grain:

“1. The product is found on any State agency’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)-approved whole grain food list. Any grain product found on a State agency’s WIC-approved whole grain food list meets CACFP whole grain-rich criteria

2. The product is labeled as “whole wheat” and has a Standard of Identity issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Only breads with these exact product names conform to an FDA Standard of Identity and can be considered whole grain-rich using this method: • whole wheat bread • entire wheat bread • graham bread • whole wheat rolls • entire wheat rolls • graham rolls • whole wheat buns • entire wheat buns • graham buns Only pastas with these exact product names conform to an FDA Standard of Identity and can be considered whole grain-rich using this method: • whole wheat macaroni product • whole wheat macaroni • whole wheat spaghetti • whole wheat vermicelli.
3. The product includes one of the following Food and Drug Administration approved whole-grain health claims on its packaging, exactly as written: “Diets rich in whole grain foods and other plant foods and low in total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease and some cancers.” OR “Diets rich in whole grain foods and other plant foods, and low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may help reduce the risk of heart disease.”
4. The NSLP whole grain-rich criteria apply for all grain products with the exception of grain-based desserts, which are not creditable under CACFP.
5. The food meets FNS’ Rule of Three, a three-step process for identifying whole grain-rich products in the CACFP. To meet the Rule of Three as a whole grain-rich product, the first ingredient (or second after water) must be whole grain, and the next two grain ingredients (if any) must be whole grains, enriched grains, bran, or germ. Any grain derivatives (by-products of grains) may be disregarded. Any non-creditable grain ingredients (e.g., flours that are not enriched or whole) that are labeled as 2 percent or less of product weight are considered insignificant and may also be disregarded (see below for a list of these ingredients). When applying the Rule of Three to the grain portion of mixed dishes, such as pizza crusts and tortillas for burritos, the first grain ingredient must be whole grain and the next two grain ingredients (if any) must be whole grains, enriched grains, bran, or germ.

When applying the Rule of Three for ready-to-eat breakfast cereals, if the first grain ingredient is a whole grain and the cereal is fortified, the product meets the whole grain rich criteria. In this situation, the second and third grain ingredients, if any, do not need to be considered.

6. Proper documentation from a manufacturer or a standardized recipe demonstrates that whole grains are the primary grain ingredient by weight. As a reminder, both infant cereals and ready-to-eat cereals must be iron-fortified to be reimbursable in the infant meal pattern. Breakfast cereals must meet the sugar limit and be made from enriched or whole grain meal or flour, or be fortified, to be creditable in the CACFP.

There are several ways for centers and day care homes to determine if a breakfast cereal is within the sugar limit. A breakfast cereal must meet only one (not all) of the following methods to determine if a breakfast cereal meets the sugar limit:

1. Use any State agency’s WIC approved breakfast cereal list. Similar to CACFP, all WIC approved breakfast cereals must contain no more than 6 grams of sugar per dry ounce (21.2 grams of sugar per 100 grams).

2. Use USDA’s Team Nutrition training worksheet Choose Breakfast Cereals That Are Lower in Added Sugars (https://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/cacfp-meal-pattern-trainingworksheets), which includes a chart with common breakfast cereal serving sizes and the maximum amount of sugar the breakfast cereal may contain per serving, which should eliminate the need to perform sugar limit calculations for many operators.

3. Use one of the following methods to calculate the sugar content per dry ounce. Standard Method • First, find the serving size in grams at the top of the Nutrition Facts label, and find the sugars listed towards the middle. • Next, divide the total sugars by the serving size in grams. Regional Directors State Directors Page 10 • If the answer is equal to or less than 0.212, then the cereal is within the required sugar limit and may be creditable in CACFP.

Check labels on these for first ingredient whole grain.”

Whole grain food list

Here is a list of the items I have found that qualify as whole grain components for the food program. It’s in no way an exhaustive list, but these do all qualify, so you can use them to plan your menu. At the bottom of the article is a pdf you can print out and take to the store with you if that helps.

Whole Grain Cereals

• Best Choice
• Bran Flakes
• Frosted Shredded Wheat
• Happy Os
• Nutty Nuggets
• Wheat Crisps
• General Mills
• Berry Berry Kix
• Kix
• Honey Kix
• Multigrain Cheerios
• Cheerios
• Corn Chex
• Wheat Chex
• Rice Chex
• Fiber One
• Total
• Wheaties
• Great Value
• Bran Flakes
• Crunchy Nuggets
• Crunchy Oat Squares
• Shredded Wheat
• Toasted Corn
• Toasted Wheat
• Toasted Whole Grain Oats
• Heart to Heart
• Honey Toasted Oat
• Warm Cinnamon Oat
• Kashi
• 7 Whole Grain Flakes
• 7 Whole Grain Honey Puffs
• 7 Whole Grain Nuggets
• 7 Whole Grain Puffs
• Kellogg’s
• All Bran
• Frosted Mini Wheats
• Mini Wheats
• Malt O Meal
• Bran Flakes
• Shredded Wheats
• Rollin Oats
• Blueberry Mini Spooners
• Frosted Mini Spooners
• Strawberries and Cream Mini Spooners
• Post
• Alpha Bits
• Bran Flakes
• Grape Nuts
• Grape Nuts Flakes
• Great Grains
• Shredded Wheat
• Quaker
• Life
• Oatmeal Squares Brown Sugar
• Oatmeal Squares Cinnamon
• Wheaties
• Oatmeal
• Grits
• Malt O Meal
• Cream of Wheat
• Cream of Rice
• Farina

And check out these CACFP Approved Cereals for Daycare ideas from an expert and long time food program monitor.

Whole Grain Breads

• Best Choice 100% Whole Wheat
• Bimbo 100% Whole Wheat
• Great Value 100% Whole Wheat
• Mrs. Baird’s 100% Whole Wheat
• Nature’s Own 100% Whole Wheat
• Ozark Hearth 100% Whole Wheat
• Roman Meal/Sungrain 100% Whole Wheat
• Wonder 100% Whole Wheat
• Sara Lee Soft and Smooth 100% Whole Grain
• 100% Whole Wheat Hamburger and Hot Dog Bugs
• Country Oven
• Franz
• Fred Meyer
• Nature’s Own
• Orowheat
• Pepperidge Farm

Whole Grain Pasta

• Allegra Whole Wheat
• Barilla Whole Wheat
• Gia Russa Whole Wheat
• Hogsdon Mill Whole Wheat
• Racconto Whole Wheat
• Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat

Whole Grain Tortillas

• Best Choice 100% Whole Wheat
• Don Pancho Whole Wheat
• Guerrero Whole Wheat
• La Bandarita Whole Wheat
• Mama Lupes 100% Whole Wheat
• Mission Whole Wheat
• Native Tortilla 100% Whole Wheat
• Ortega Whole Wheat
• Santa Fe Tortilla Company Whole Wheat
• Tia Rosa 100% Whole Wheat
• Tio Santi 100% Whole Wheat

Whole Grain Bagels

• Thomas Hearty Grains 100% Whole Wheat
• Pepperidge Farm 100% Whole Wheat
• Crafters WG Bagels

Whole Grain English Muffins

• Healthy Life 100% Whole Wheat
• Signature Kitchens 100% Whole Wheat
• Aunt Millie’s 100% Whole Wheat
• Orowheat 100% Whole Wheat
• 365 Everyday Value Wheat
• Bake Crafters WG
• Thomas Heart Muffins 100% Whole Wheat
• Nature’s Grains 51% Whole Grain
• Orowheat Whole Grain and Flax
• Udi’s Gluten Free Whole Grain
• 365 Whole Wheat

List of Whole Grain Crackers

• Savoritz Original Thin Wheat
• Savoritz Original Woven Wheat
• Triscuits
• Wheat Thins
• Whole Grain Goldfish
• Scooby-Doo! Graham Cracker Sticks

• Rice Cakes that are made with Brown Rice
• Corn Tortillas
• Brown Rice
• Bulgar
• Boboli 100% Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
• Sun Puffs
• Original Sunchips

Obviously, you can make your own whole grain foods as well. There are a few mixes that will count towards the whole grain requirement when used.

• Kodiak Cakes Protein Packed Muffin Mix
• Aunt Jemima Whole Wheat Blend Pancake and Waffle Mix
• Meijer Whole Wheat Pancake and Waffle Mix
• Bob’s Red Mill Organic 7 Grain Pancake and Waffle Mix
• Bob’s Red Mill 10 Grain Pancake Mix
• King Arthur Flour Apple Cinnamon Muffin Mix

Homemade Whole Grain Ideas

We make our own bread at Little Sprouts because of my food allergies. We make awesome whole wheat bread, rolls, banana bread, bagels, buns, muffins, pancakes, and pizza dough from freshly milled flour from wheat berries we grind ourselves. You can buy whole wheat flour and make this bread with it as well.

If you’re making bread, pizza, bagels or rolls, you want to use hard wheat and for non-yeast breads like banana bread, pancakes and muffins, you want to use soft wheat. If the recipe we’re using calls for white flour, we just substitute whole wheat flour.

You can use your regular recipe for biscuits, pancakes, muffins, waffles, sandwich bread, rolls, buns, pretzels, quick breads, etc., and just substitute at least half of the flour in the recipe for whole grain flour. If you do less than 100% whole grain flour, the other percentage must be enriched. I grind my own flour for the homemade bread I make.

We even add whole grains to our meatballs, pizza crust, sausage balls and empanadas. 

And remember again, you only have to serve one whole grain item per day, so let the rest of your meals be simple.

CACFP Whole Grain Eligible Products by Brand Printable

Whole Grain PDF

If you have found any other whole grain products that aren’t listed here, I’d love for you to comment and I can add them if they meet the USDA requirements.

My hope is for this article to help simplify the whole grain requirement for you! Thanks so much for checking it out. For more mealtime inspiration, check out cacfp breakfast ideas, lunch ideas, and snack ideas. For help in planning your daycare menu, click on the highlighted text. If you need help with your meat and meat alternates, or fruits and vegetables check this out. And keep these 5 minute daycare lunches on hand for when you’re in a pinch!

Food Program for Daycare Provider Helps

• How to Get Kids to Actually Eat Healthy Food
• Complete Guide to Planning Daycare Menus
• CACFP Meal Planning Template with Sample Menu and Shopping List
• Premade Daycare Monthly Menus
• 5 Minute Daycare Lunches
• Toddler Meals for Picky Eaters
• Dirt cheap meals for daycare

For more tips to make running your home daycare easier, click here.