In Los Angeles, one of the nation’s largest and most complex food systems, a critical gap had gone largely unaddressed: the support home-based child care providers need in order to nourish the county’s youngest residents - children ages 0-5. For years, early childhood nutrition lived on the margins of food justice work, often treated as a public health issue rather than a food systems-level priority. But leaders at the Los Angeles Food Policy Council (LAFPC) and local partners such as First5LA and the Child Care Alliance of Los Angeles are working to change that, ensuring the home-based child care providers who care for the youngest children are no longer left out of the conversation.
“We realized that this 0-to-5 age group was starting to bubble up, but it hadn’t really been a focus in food justice spaces,” said Ana-Alicia Carr, director of policy and coalitions with LAFPC. “A lot of that work had traditionally lived in public health, but not in food systems work.”
Bridging Food Justice and Early Childhood
This realization brought into focus a population often overlooked: home-based childcare providers. Many are Black and Latina women, running small businesses in their communities while navigating economic instability themselves, all while caring for children from families facing similar barriers.
“They have this dual challenge,” Carr explained. “They’re earning lower incomes, sometimes experiencing food insecurity themselves, and simultaneously caring for children who are also coming from families facing those same challenges.”
Home-based child care providers are often among the first people outside a child’s family to shape their relationship with food. They plan meals, stretch food budgets, navigate nutrition programs, and care for children during some of the most formative years of development. Yet they have rarely been recognized as food system actors or included in food policy conversations. LAFPC’s role has been to help bridge that divide - bringing a food systems lens to early childhood nutrition and connecting child care, public benefits, local food access, provider leadership, and policy advocacy as parts of one interconnected system. Recognizing this gap, the Council helped plan a cross-sector summit, bringing together food system leaders, early childhood advocates, government partners and providers themselves.
“We wanted to really paint the full picture, what food insecurity looks like in Los Angeles, and what it means specifically for children 0 to 5,” Carr said.
Turning Conversations into Action
Unlike traditional convenings, this summit was designed to do more than generate ideas; it centered the voices of those most impacted.
“We didn’t want to talk on behalf of providers,” Carr said. “We wanted them integrated into the conversation, helping define what solutions should look like.”
That approach surfaced real barriers, from administrative challenges in programs such as Child and Adult Food Program (CACFP) to the financial strain providers face when covering food costs out of pocket. But more importantly, it sparked sustained momentum.
“A lot of times, ideas come out of summits and just stay there,” Carr noted. “What made this different is that the work has continued, it’s become an integrated focus.”
“This effort demonstrates what’s possible when organizations work across sectors instead of in silos. Centering the voices of home-based child care providers has helped shape more responsive policies and strategies that reflect the realities families face every day while strengthening nutrition support for young children across Los Angeles.” GiNA Rodríguez, First 5 LA, Children’s Advocacy organization
“As a home-based child care provider, I see firsthand how deeply connected food access and child care truly are. Programs and policies like CACFP directly impact the children and families we care for every day. This work is personal to me because so many home-based providers nurture children with so much love and care, often while navigating limited resources and little recognition. Being part of these conversations has reminded me how important it is for providers’ voices and lived experiences to be included and lifted up in food policy and community solutions. Not only as caregivers, but also as leaders and advocates for our communities.” - Marina Navarro, Family Friend and Neighbor provider
Building Power Through Leadership
That momentum carried into the Council’s Food Leaders Lab in 2025, where home-based providers were equipped with advocacy skills and tools to engage directly with policymakers. For many, it was their first time stepping into those spaces.
“To see people come into their own voice and realize how powerful it is, that’s exactly what we hope for,” Carr said.
Participants went on to deliver public comments in support of expanding Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and CACFP outreach, transforming lived experience into policy advocacy. For LAFPC, this leadership development is not separate from policy change; it is how policy change becomes accountable. Providers who understand the daily realities of feeding young children are best positioned to explain what programs like WIC and CACFP look like in practice, where barriers show up, and what solutions would actually work for families. At the systems level, the impact is already taking shape. For the first time, the Council’s long-term Good Food for All Agenda includes a dedicated focus on early childhood “first food equity.”
“We now have a section specifically focused on strengthening 0-to-5 food equity,” Carr said. “That’s a major shift for us.”
Strengthening the Work with Voices for Healthy Kids
Support from Voices for Healthy Kids, an initiative of the American Heart Association, has played an important role in helping the Los Angeles Food Policy Council expand into early childhood nutrition with greater clarity and intention. As the Council’s work evolved, Voices for Healthy Kids provided access to a robust library of advocacy tools, messaging resources and strategic guidance that helped inform local efforts.
“There’s a whole library of advocacy resources that has been helpful,” Carr said. “We’ve been able to use those as a points of ideation, especially as we build programs like the Food Leaders Lab.”
Equally important has been the relationship-building and ongoing collaboration with Voices for Healthy Kids’ partners, including regular engagement with national experts and peers navigating similar work.
“It’s been helpful to stay in communication as our work has evolved,” Carr added.
That support has allowed the Council to connect its local work to broader national efforts, strengthening its ability to move from convening and storytelling to long-term policy and systems change.
Looking Ahead
With new research underway, a cross-sector working group in motion and a policy agenda in development, the Los Angeles Food Policy Council is building a more inclusive and responsive food system, one that starts earlier and reaches further. But the approach remains grounded in one core principle: start with the people most impacted.
“For us, it always comes back to centering the community,” Carr said. “Especially when you’re entering a new space, you have to lead with curiosity, humility and a willingness to learn.”
Because in Los Angeles, advancing food equity doesn’t begin in schools, it begins long before. And by investing in early childhood nutrition now, leaders are not just addressing immediate gaps; they are building a stronger, more equitable foundation for generations to come.