CACFP Tier I vs Tier II: What Is the Difference?
CACFP Tier I vs Tier II explained in plain words: who gets which rates, the 2025-26 payment amounts, and how your sponsor decides your tier.
Read this guideIRS Standard Meal Allowance Rates for Daycare Providers (2025)
Feeding children is a big cost of running a daycare. The IRS standard meal allowance lets you deduct set amounts for every meal and snack you serve, without saving a single grocery receipt.
What the standard meal allowance is
The standard meal allowance is a simple method the IRS gives family daycare providers for deducting food costs. Instead of tracking what you truly spent on groceries, you count the meals and snacks you served and multiply by fixed rates set by the IRS.
These rates come from the same federal food program rates used in CACFP, the Child and Adult Care Food Program. The allowance is made for home providers, and it is one of the most useful tax breaks in this business.
Good to know: You still must keep records of which children ate which meals. You just do not need grocery receipts for the food itself.
The 2025 rates
For tax year 2025, the standard meal allowance rates for the contiguous United States (the lower 48 states) are below. Rates for Alaska and Hawaii are higher, so check the IRS table if you live in one of those states.
- Breakfast: $1.66 per child
- Lunch: $3.15 per child
- Supper: $3.15 per child
- Snack: $0.93 per child, per snack
Good to know: You may claim up to one breakfast, one lunch, one supper, and up to two snacks per child, per day, at these rates.
How to use the rates: a simple example
Say you serve 6 children breakfast, lunch, and one snack each day. Per child, that is $1.66 plus $3.15 plus $0.93, which equals $5.74 a day. For 6 children, that is $34.44 a day.
Over 250 care days in a year, that adds up to $8,610 of food deduction. Many providers are surprised: the standard rates often beat their real food costs, and there are no grocery receipts to sort in April.
Standard rates or real food costs: which is better?
Each year, you may pick the method that works better for you. If you spend a lot on fresh food and your real costs are higher than the standard rates, tracking actual costs may win. If your costs are lower, or you hate saving receipts, the standard rates usually win.
One rule matters a lot: if you get paid back for meals through CACFP, that money is income, and you still deduct your food cost using one of these two methods. The CACFP Reimbursement Calculator shows what the food program pays, which helps you compare your real costs with both sets of numbers.
- Use actual costs if your grocery spending is high and you keep good receipts
- Use the standard rates if your spending is lower, or your receipts are a mess
- You may switch methods from year to year
Records you must keep
The standard rates remove the need for grocery receipts, but not the need for records. For each day, keep a list of the children present and which meals and snacks each child was served. Menus are helpful proof too.
Keep these meal count records with your tax papers. If the IRS asks questions, a clean daily meal log is exactly what they want to see.
- Daily attendance for each child
- A meal and snack count for each child, each day
- Menus, if you make them (helpful, not required)
- CACFP claim records, if you are on the food program
Try it free: use our CACFP Reimbursement Calculator — it does this math for you in about a minute, right in your browser.
Common questions
Can I claim the standard meal allowance if I am not on CACFP?
Yes. The allowance is a tax rule for family daycare providers. You do not need to be on the food program to use the standard meal rates on your taxes.
Can I claim meals for my own children?
No. The allowance covers only meals and snacks served to children you are paid to care for. Meals for your own children are a personal cost.
Do the standard meal rates change every year?
They can change when the federal food program rates change. Always check the rates for the tax year you are filing, because last year's numbers may be out of date.
Keep reading
How to Join CACFP: A Step-by-Step Guide for Home Providers
How to join CACFP as a home daycare provider: find a sponsor, sign up, learn the meal rules, and file your first claim, step by step in plain words.
Read this guideHow Much Does CACFP Pay? Real Examples for 4, 6, 8 and 10 Children
How much does CACFP pay a home daycare? Worked monthly examples at Tier I rates for 4, 6, 8 and 10 children, plus what changes your real payment.
Read this guideDisclaimer: HomeDaycareTools.com provides free calculators and general information for planning purposes only. Nothing on this site is tax, legal or financial advice. Tax rules, CACFP rates and licensing rules change — confirm your figures with IRS Publication 587, your CACFP sponsoring organization, your state licensing agency, or a qualified tax professional before filing or signing anything.