Which CACFP Documents Go Where? Compliance Review vs. Sponsor Visit
Every review season, directors ask some version of the same question: "Should I just send everything?"
It's an understandable instinct. If your center has had findings before, or a sponsor visit is coming up, handing over every log, form, and folder feels safer. But a compliance review and a sponsor's on-site TDA review aren't looking at the same things. Sending everything to everyone usually just means more scanning, and less depth where it actually counts.
Here's how the two really split.
What a Compliance Review Covers
A compliance review is built around your paperwork, the menu side of CACFP. That's:
- Current menus and meal pattern compliance
- Production records (quantities, portions, dates)
- Crediting accuracy for combination and processed foods
- CN labels and Product Formulation Statements (PFS)
- Whole-grain documentation and tracking
- Special diet and medical statement paperwork, including milk substitutions
This kind of review doesn't involve setting foot in the kitchen. Everything gets caught from the documents themselves.
What Your Sponsor Checks in Person
Your CACFP sponsor's review is operational, not just paper. Per the TDA CACFP Handbook, every child care center, adult day care center, and At-Risk site has to be taking a point-of-service meal count, and reviewers reconcile that count against attendance and enrollment for a five-day sample. That's something a reviewer has to watch happen, it can't be confirmed from a scanned PDF. Along with that:
- Meal service observation, timing, portions, meal pattern in real time
- Civil rights training documentation
That's the CACFP-specific half of a site visit.
The Third Pile: Food Safety
Temperature logs and staff food handler certifications get lumped in with "audit paperwork" a lot, but they're really a different animal. They're tied to a facility's DAHS license and general health code, not CACFP crediting. A CACFP sponsor doesn't have to review them as part of the food program review, but they're worth keeping current anyway, since the kitchen can be inspected on its own.
Why Bother Splitting It Up
A shorter, targeted list means a compliance reviewer can spend time on what actually causes findings, crediting errors, missing whole-grain documentation, gaps in milk substitution paperwork, instead of paging through months of attendance sheets that belong somewhere else. The result is less scanning overall, and each document lands with whoever's actually responsible for reviewing it.
If it's ever unclear which pile something belongs in, ask. That's a five-minute email, not a scanning project.
Ready to sort yours out before your next review? A Compliance Review will show you exactly what's missing, what's ready, and what to leave for your sponsor.