Food & Nutrition
Healthy Eating Culture
We believe that providing nutritious food plays a crucial role in a child’s development, as well as creating the foundations for a lifetime of good food choices.
We use The Professional Nursery Kitchen to prepare our food and we cook it on site. Our seasonal menus are developed with the vision of creating a healthy, nutritious, and balanced food offering across a three-week rotating menu of breakfast, healthy morning, and afternoon snack options as well as lunch and tea, which include a range of dietary and cultural options.
Working with The Soil Association we are making healthy eating part of our culture by creating a dining experience that encourages social interaction and self-service that promotes independence.
Exploring Food
We think creatively about how good food choices are embedded in who we are and how to make food feel fun, accessible and something we all explore together. Children are introduced to and encouraged to try new things through play and exploration, and we promote a grow your own initiative giving children the first-hand experience of where their food comes from.
Our Food
We buy and source ingredients that adhere to the Food for Life criteria which includes: –
- only using meat from farms which satisfy UK animal welfare standards
- using sustainably sourced fish
- sourcing eggs from free-range hens
- using ingredients that are free from additives
- ensuring that at least 75% of our menu is freshly prepared – our new menu is currently 95%!
All our food is freshly prepared and we aim to meet the full requirements of The Early Years Foundation Stage related to healthy eating.
Dietary & Allergy Requirements
Our menus are designed for inclusion, and we offer alternative options to support cultural preferences and dietary/allergy requirements.
We follow a colour coded plate system in our nurseries which visually identifies food preferences/ requirements and children very quickly identify which colour plate their food will be served on. This process enables our nursery chefs and practitioners to follow a robust, check and double check process.
In all our nurseries we operate a ‘No Nuts Policy’. We endeavour to ensure that there are no nuts or nut traces in any of our food.
Food Safety
Our teams are use to clearly and confidently following safety and hygiene practices and we provide periodic training to ensure food safety and compliance. We are constantly reviewing our environments to ensure that we can prepare and serve food that is not only delicious, but safe.
Accreditation
Soil Association is a non-profit organisation with a core ethos of helping people to serve healthy, tasty, and sustainable food. Their Early Years award provides an endorsement that we are serving good quality nutritious food and that we support babies and children to develop good eating habits.
We are working alongside the Soil Association to achieve their Food for Life award. An award that not only focuses on the quality of our ingredients and the nutritional balance of our menu, but requires our nurseries to embed a good food culture; helping children learn about food health and nurturing good understanding of food literacy.
