Once your organization is approved as a CACFP contracting entity (CE), the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) expects you to train your own staff on the program — before anyone starts CACFP duties, and every year after that. This is separate from the one-hour applicant training you completed during the application. Nothing from this training is sent to TDA. You keep the certificates and a simple training log on file, and TDA may ask to see them during an administrative review.
CACFP Solutions does not collect these certificates. They are your records. This article explains what TDA requires, which free trainings satisfy it, and what to keep.
What TDA requires
TDA’s CACFP Handbook (Section 4500, Program Management and Monitoring, items 4511–4515) sets three rules:
- Train before duties begin. Anyone performing key CACFP activities must be trained before they start those duties. This includes new hires added during the year.
- Train annually. Every person with CACFP responsibilities is retrained each program year (the CACFP program year runs October 1 through September 30).
- Document it. For each training, keep the date, location, topics covered, the names of everyone who attended, and their written or electronic signatures.
Training records are kept on site with your other CACFP records for at least three years after the end of the program year they belong to — longer if an audit, review finding, or serious deficiency is still open (Handbook item 4551) — and must be available to TDA during regular business hours, at minimum 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday (item 4552). Nothing is uploaded to TX-UNPS or emailed to TDA; reviewers look at the records on site.
Who needs training
Everyone who touches the food program. In a typical center that means the owner or director, whoever handles enrollment forms and income eligibility, whoever records meal counts and attendance, whoever prepares or serves meals, and whoever prepares the monthly claim. If a teacher records point-of-service meal counts in the classroom, that teacher needs training on meal counts and the meal pattern.
Topics the training must cover
TDA lists the topics in two groups. The seven areas are content requirements, not seven separate courses — one well-documented session can cover several of them.
Staff who operate the program day to day (Handbook item 4512): Program Meal Pattern, Meal Counts, Claims Submission, Claims Review Procedures, Recordkeeping Requirements, Reimbursement System, and Civil Rights.
Owners, directors, and office staff who manage the program (Handbook item 4511) cover the list above plus: Claim Preparation and Submittal, Financial Management and Procurement, Budgets, Site and Participant Eligibility, Enrollment and Attendance Requirements, Meal Service Operations, Meal Preparation, and Monitoring.
Free trainings that cover these topics
TDA hosts recorded trainings that issue a certificate at the end. They are free, need no login, and can be completed on any computer. Each certificate is your documentation for the topics that course covers.
| Training | Covers | Who | How often |
|---|---|---|---|
| TDA Civil Rights Training | Civil Rights | Everyone with CACFP duties | Every year |
| Intro to CACFP for Child Care Centers — Part 1 and Part 2 | Meal pattern, meal counts, recordkeeping, claims, reimbursement | Child care center staff with CACFP duties | Before duties begin; annual refresher |
| Intro to CACFP for Adult Day Care Centers — Part 1 and Part 2 | Same topics for adult day care | Adult day care staff with CACFP duties | Before duties begin; annual refresher |
| TDA CACFP Training page (Institute of Child Nutrition courses) | Child and adult meal patterns, infant meal pattern, food safety, operational best practices | Kitchen and classroom staff | As needed |
Training you deliver yourself also counts — a staff meeting where the director walks through your center’s meal count procedure, for example — as long as it is documented with the date, location, topics, attendees, and signatures. One caution from the handbook (item 4513): if staff train by video or on their own online, you must have some check that they actually received the training — a certificate, a short quiz, or an interactive exercise. A signature by itself is not enough for self-paced training. TDA’s own courses take care of this by issuing a certificate; for an in-house video, add a few quiz questions. TDA also notes that it cannot guarantee training it did not produce is current, so lean on the TDA-hosted courses for the core topics. Our Training FAQ lists the MyFoodCloud and Zoho Expenses video playlists your staff can use for the software side.
Saving your certificates
Each TDA course issues a Certificate of Completion at the end, but the two course types deliver it differently:
- Civil Rights Training: the certificate appears on screen when the course ends. TDA’s notice reads: “the TDA training system will not save certificates of completion. Please print or save the certificate immediately upon finishing the course.” If the window closes first, the course has to be completed again.
- Intro to CACFP courses (Part 1 and Part 2): a short form appears at the end. Enter your name, your center’s name, and your email address, then scroll to the bottom and click Send — not Next. Clicking Next skips the form and no certificate is emailed. The certificate arrives by email; save it when it does.
Have each staff member enter their own name so the certificate documents that person’s training. Save the certificates in a training folder you keep with your CACFP records.
Keep a training log
Certificates alone do not capture everything TDA asks for, so keep one running log alongside them. A single sheet with these columns is enough:
- Date of training
- Location (or “online” with the course name)
- Topics covered
- Trainer or course provider
- Name of each person trained
- Signature of each person trained (written or electronic)
To save you setting one up, we have a ready-made log with these columns, a topics checklist, and instructions: download the CACFP Staff Training Log (Excel) or make a copy in Google Sheets.
The Excel download works without an account. The Google Sheets option asks you to sign in to Google and click Make a copy, which gives you your own editable version. Either way, fill in your center name and program year at the top, then add a row each time someone completes a training.
Add a row every time someone completes a course or attends an in-house session, and file the matching certificate behind it. Keep each program year’s log for at least three years after that program year ends.
A simple rhythm
- Before your first claim: every staff member with CACFP duties completes Civil Rights and the Intro to CACFP courses for your center type. Start the log.
- When you hire: the new person completes the same courses before their first CACFP task. Add them to the log.
- Every program year (October): everyone repeats Civil Rights and refreshes the operational topics. Start a new page in the log.
Common questions
I already completed TDA’s applicant training. Does that count?
That one-hour class (“CACFP Program Application for New CEs Introductory Class”) is a requirement of the application, and TDA collected it with your financial documents. It does not replace staff training, which continues for as long as you participate in the program.
Do I send the certificates to CACFP Solutions or TDA?
Neither. Keep them in your own records. TDA reviews them on site during monitoring visits and administrative reviews.
Does every staff member have to take every course?
Everyone takes Civil Rights each year. Beyond that, match the training to the person’s duties: someone who only serves meals needs the meal pattern and meal count topics; the person who prepares the claim needs the full list.
What happens at a review if the records are missing?
The handbook is direct about this: CEs that fail to meet the training requirements “may face disallowances, unallowable costs, termination, and/or placement … in the serious deficiency process” (item 4513). In practice a gap found at a review means a finding you must correct. Keeping the log current is the easiest way to avoid it.
Questions
Contact CACFP Solutions at help@cacfpsolutions.com if a course will not load or if you want help setting up your training log. One-on-one training sessions for new staff can be booked through the Training FAQ.