I had a really interesting meeting at our Faringdon nursery last week with a really impressive young student from Oxford Brookes, Stuart. Stuart has spent the last few months working through a project for us, looking at the menu cycle that we were using at Faringdon, then reviewing where we were lacking in the correct nutrients to provide a balanced diet. More importantly, he also looked at the areas where we were offering too much of substances which are not recommended.

The biggest challenge we are facing is balancing a menu that is sufficiently high in calories for young children, but still low in salt and sugar. For example, at tea time, the children really love pitta bread, sandwiches, wraps and rolls, all with different fillings and accompanied by fruit and vegetables. However, one of the worst offenders for salt consumption is bread products, so we need to decide whether the calories are more important, or keeping inside the recommended levels for salt.

We have already trialled a new menu at Faringdon this summer, based on the recommendations of a group of 3 students who are also at Oxford Brookes, so I plan to try Stuart’s proposed menu out at one of our other settings - I have yet to decide which cook to rope in to my plan!  Whatever the outcome, we will tweak our menus across the group and hope to have an ‘ideal menu’ within the next couple of months. However, it is important to keep some flexibility and allow the cooks to use their own creative talents, just within the correct nutritional guidelines.

Generally parents seem very happy with the meals we are serving, but do let us know if you have any comment or ways in which you would like to see us change.

3 Comments »

1. 

   Having seen the lunches served at 1 of your nurserys & been there when the shopping has arrived, is it normal for you to use “smartpriced” eggs (which are caged!) & smartprice fromage frais!
   Whilst understanding the need to be thrifty is this reaaly the road chosen to do it?

   Comment by Mrs Wilkins — September 25, 2009 @ 12:00 pm

2. 

   I recently went into one of your nurserys to talk about my daughter, as i went into the staffroom to do so i noticed that all the food in there was smartprice, i was appalled to see this as some parents pay highly priced bills. i can understand the need to maintain a healthy diet for the children, but all smartprice food is high in salt and sugar, and surely our money can go towards buying better food than that, i know that this is a buisness but surely we can get better value for money. i do agree that the menu does need revising because my children often come home hugry so i have to give them a full meal rather than a light meal, also i think that you can provide much better baby wipes and nappies.

   Comment by Mrs Spencer — October 7, 2009 @ 7:26 pm

3. 

   A healthy diet will always be composed of high fiber frutis and veggies, low sugar, low carb and rich in protein.’,;

   Comment by Gabrielle Ross — May 12, 2010 @ 2:47 am

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