One thing that will always be consistent is a love of food with our adults and children alike. Sharing a love of delicious foods is something that creates a bond - what is more lovely to see than children enjoying their home cooked meal, talking with peers and or even for our younger ones - watching the older children be independent and observing our adults positive language and gestures over meal times.

Whilst we know that not all children have an extreme love for all foods and 'will eat anything' and we have our fair share of 'fussy eaters' through the door we do everything in our power to support, encourage and provide a healthy balanced diet for our early years children.  We will work with parents to find out about the child's eating habits at home and firm favourite foods and try to create our own options to support those children whilst encouraging them to try a wider world of foods.

 

We have around 6-8 menus a year, which are varied, international, tasty and healthy and draw on the views and feedback of our children, parents and staff. We try to have 'something for everyone' taking into account allergies, dietary preferences and to support weaning stages of our babies. Each meal can be adapted to support dietary requirements of any children who start their nursery life with us, or if those preferences come about later on. Our weekly menu will rotate each week so children are able to try new dishes for each of their sessions, this supports especially children who only attend one day so that they are not always getting the 'Monday meals' for example.

 

In our garden we have a vegetable patch and the children are able to literally grow their own vegetables from sowing the seed, to nurturing them and then watching them grow to finally... finally... be able to taste them in their very own meals at nursery with their very own homegrown ingredients! And what better way to do this? Allow the children to help prepare their homegrown produce and add them to their dinners? such a sense of achievement and pride.

 

For those fussier eaters or to introduce new foods to children we also like to offer the experience of exploring the ingredients they will eat, being mindful of food 'waste' but using wonky or older veg for printing, putting spices in paint, sticking with orange peel, adding lemon zest to playdough....all of these and many are simple ways to introduce children to foods; appearance, textures, tastes, smells.... They explore, we talk, we all learn together.

What are your child's favourite foods?
What do you love to eat at home as a family?
Do you have any particular customs?
Let us know, we would love to reflect into our menu's.