Company Profile

The Karamu Nutrition Program Incorporated (KNP) is a public benefit non-profit corporation headquartered in Tennessee. Our primary service is sponsorship of the USDA's Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).  In fact, we are one of the largest and fastest growing non-profit food program sponsors in Tennessee. Karamu’s founder and Executive Director is Vera Corley,  who  is herself a childcare provider and a nationally  known advocate for provider and children’s causes. Karamu  is  a  provider  friendly  organization which has built a strong  reputation  of  treating  its  providers  with  respect and courtesy; Mrs. Corley will have it no other way!

In addition to the CACFP, Karamu's Education And Resource Services Division provides a wide array of childcare related educational services. We sponsor seminars, workshops, in-service training, and Child Development Associate (CDA) training and certification. We also offer our own childcare accreditation program.  

Karamu's sister company, The African American Childcare Association (AACCA), has chapters from San Diego, California to Lake City, South Carolina.  The AACCA provides its' own accreditation program and many other services to providers who routinely care for minority children.

As we begin the year 2000 and the 21^st century, Karamu finds itself in a strategic position to become a prominent childcare authority. With our reputation as a provider friendly childcare organization; favorable publicity received throughout the year; our new position as the largest CACFP sponsor in the state of Tennessee; our ties to the nationally renowned African American Childcare Association; and our executive director's reputation in the childcare community; Karamu is primed to become a national childcare leader.  

With the turn of the century, it is our goal here at Karamu to make an indelible mark on the way childcare is done in America and to build a legacy that will see the industry prosper for the next 100 years.