Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15) celebrates the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans with roots in Latin America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Spain. For childcare providers, it’s a chance to honor the families you serve by bringing cultural foods into your CACFP menus — and the best part is, you don’t have to guess at the crediting.
The USDA’s Team Nutrition CACFP Multicultural Recipe Project created standardized recipes specifically for CACFP — with crediting information already calculated, yields sized for childcare settings, and step-by-step instructions. These aren’t “inspired by” recipes you need to verify. They’re ready to use.
Here are some of the best ones to try this fall.
A savory Cuban-inspired dish with seasoned ground beef, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, garlic, and olives, served over brown rice.
Crediting: ½ cup picadillo over ¼ cup rice provides 1½ oz eq meat, ¼ cup vegetable, and ½ oz eq grains.
Source: USDA Team Nutrition CACFP Multicultural Recipe Project
Recipe for family child care homes (6 servings)
Recipe for centers (25–50 servings)
A traditional Latin American staple — seasoned black beans simmered with cumin, garlic, and oregano, served over brown rice.
Crediting: ⅔ cup beans and ½ cup rice provides 1 oz eq meat alternate (legume as meat alternate) and grains.
Source: USDA Team Nutrition CACFP Multicultural Recipe Project
Note: Beans and peas can credit as either meat alternate or vegetable, but not both in the same meal. In this recipe, black beans credit as a meat alternate.
The ICN Child Nutrition Recipe Box has a full Multicultural Recipes collection for CACFP centers with additional standardized recipes from Latin American, Caribbean, and other cultural traditions — all with crediting information and yields for childcare settings.
The Texas Department of Agriculture also published a Multicultural Recipe Card Booklet for CACFP with additional standardized recipes featuring locally sourced ingredients from Texas.
Food is one of the most natural ways to introduce culture — but it’s not the only way. Here are a few ideas to make Hispanic Heritage Month come alive in your classroom:
Read bilingual or culturally representative books. Picture books that celebrate Latino families, traditions, and languages help children see themselves — or their friends — reflected in the stories you share. Look for books in both English and Spanish at your local library.
Play music from Latin American traditions. From cumbia to mariachi to bossa nova, Latin American music spans an incredible range of styles. Play it during art time, outdoor play, or as background during meals.
Explore colors and patterns through art. Different Hispanic cultures have rich artistic traditions children can explore — Mexican papel picado (perforated paper banners), Peruvian textile patterns, Caribbean-inspired paintings, or mola designs from Panama. Choose activities that reflect the specific cultures represented in your program.
Talk about where food comes from. Hispanic Heritage Month overlaps with the lead-up to Farm to CACFP Week (October 18–24). Many traditional Latin American dishes feature locally grown staples like beans, corn, squash, tomatoes, and peppers — a natural connection to conversations about farming and local food systems.
For more activity ideas, check out KidKare’s earlier posts:
