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Daycare No Longer Providing Morning Snack
Maybe I am making too big a deal, but my daycare is no longer providing morning snack(children already bring their own lunches from home). They said it is because they are wasting too much food. They said that they will offer the children a snack from their lunch box if they are hungry. Why can't they still provide morning snack, and ask who is hungry and wants to eat. I have three kids in daycare, and it is hard enough offering a vary of foods throughout the week as it is. Not to mention I will have to buy more food for the school week.
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Are they providing any other meal for the day, like breakfast or afternoon snack?
Did they raise rates this year?- Unless otherwise stated, all my posts are personal opinion and worth what you paid for them.
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Do they provide an afternoon snack? What time is lunch? Also, is this center based or home based?
I don't provide a morning snack either. We eat breakfast upon arrival, provided that the child arrives before 8am. After 8am, they should arrived already fed.
We eat lunch at 10:45 during the school year--the kindergarten bus comes at 11:15. We have an afternoon snack at 2:30 or 3pm.Comment
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My daycare kiddies come with all of their own foods for the day...snacks and lunch. They eat breakfast before they arrive and I provide water to drink with meals. This is the way I have always done it.
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I provide everything for 2 meals and 2 snacks everyday, here, but have thought about discontinuing morning snack a couple times. Since breakfast is from 8:00am-9:00am (as they arrive) and lunch is at 12:00pm, the 10:00am snack is not quite as urgent when funds are getting too tight to keep up to my standards of service. My afternoon snack is at 3:30 but parents continue to ask me to offer another at 5:00. I do not offer supper since I feel kids should have at least one meal with their parents a day.
I went with a $10/per head/per week rate hike to cover the extra expenses (power bill hike, tax hike, water bill hike, insurance hike, grocery hike, etc. this year) instead of cutting services. Your daycare may have decided they would get less trouble from parents with discontinuing services instead of raising their rates.
Unfortnately, now, most parents will not notice a lowering of the level of childcare services BUT will be infuriated by a rate hike to be able to continue to offer higher level of service.....
I wish it was different. Your provider most likely lost quite a bit of sleep over the decision.
- Unless otherwise stated, all my posts are personal opinion and worth what you paid for them.Comment
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I have also thought of discontinuing morning snack for this reason--breakfast is at 8-8:30, half my kids don't get here until 9:30 or 10, and with 10:30 snack and 12:30 lunch...I dunno. I've thought of moving lunch up to 11:30 and dropping snack.I provide everything for 2 meals and 2 snacks everyday, here, but have thought about discontinuing morning snack a couple times. Since breakfast is from 8:00am-9:00am (as they arrive) and lunch is at 12:00pm, the 10:00am snack is not quite as urgent when funds are getting too tight to keep up to my standards of service. My afternoon snack is at 3:30 but parents continue to ask me to offer another at 5:00. I do not offer supper since I feel kids should have at least one meal with their parents a day.Hee hee! Look, I have a signature!Comment
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AM snack
I did away with mine because every single day, I was throwing away snacks that were barely touched. It gets incredibly frustrating to see that much waste. I tried the approaach of asking who wanted snack and everyone would always say "me" but then they wouldn't eat the snack even though they asked for it. There is only 3.5 hours between breakfast and lunch so I just opted to skip AM snack unless we are having a late lunch.Comment
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I provide breakfast from the time I open until 9:00 a.m. and then lunch from 11:30-12:30 and PM snack at 2:30-3:00. Food program only reimburses for 3 (2 snack and one meal or 2 meals and 1 snack) so that is all I do. I did away with morning snack a long time ago because kids who eat a hearty breakfast would waste the snack in the a.m. so I got tired of wasting food and just made sure the breakfasts were substantial enough to last until lunch.Comment
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I did away with morning snack a long time ago. We eat breakfast at 8-8:30, then lunch at 11:30-12. When I offered morning snack the kids wouldn't eat their lunch. After doing away with it they eat a much better lunch and I throw away a lot less food.Comment
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Why can't they still provide morning snack, and ask who is hungry and wants to eat.
All of the kids would say they wanted a snack whether they were hungry or not. You wouldn't be able to do it for some and not others. So either you DO morning snack or you don't.
Are you doing breakfast at home? Does the day care not serve breakfast? If they don't serve breakfast then my guess is that they are having a large number of their kids coming to daycare who SHOULD have eaten at home in the morning but didn't so morning snack is turning into a full breakfast.
When parents know that a morning snack is coming they often don't do breakfast at all or just give treats in the morning on the way. They rationalize that it's okay if the kid doesn't eat anything or eat anything healthy because they will get a snack soon.
When you do morning snack but not breakfast and you have a group of kids who were supposed to eat breakfast at home but didn't... then morning snack turns into a deal where they want a ton of the snack food because they haven't eaten since the night before.
My guess is that they are cutting morning snack because a large percentage of their parents are relying on it to be the childs breakfast. Once the parents KNOW that NO food is coming until eleven THEN they will be more likely to actually take the time in the morning and do a breakfast. Even WITH that rule tho you will always have parents who refuse to feed their kid in the morning because they do not want to build that time into their morning and do the work of preparing and supervising their kids while they are getting ready for work.
If they are providing breakfast and it is a good healthy meal then the kids don't need a morning snack if they do lunch relatively early... like eleven.Comment
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So VERY true. I can't tell how many times I have repeatedly told the current parents as well as parents coming in about snack times.
I had to ALWAYS stress to the parents that morning snack was a little something to get the kiddos to lunch and afternoon snack was something to get them to dinner.
I remember one parent dropped normally dropped their child at 7:15 one morning was running late. Snack is served at 8:30. Mom came in running in at 8:35 a.m. and was stunned to graham crackers and juice out. She was like OMG...but didn't say anything.
Next morning same thing. This time we had french toast sticks and juice (milk was served during lunch only). There was still a few left on the tray and the mother said OMG...that's all?!!? I said "yes ma'am. We only make enough for the kids who are going to be here". She said "what if they want more?" I explained to her that "snack was just a little something to hold tummies over until lunch". She said "well So and So hasn't eaten since last night"....umm ok...it's 8:45 a.m. and you haven't fed your child?!? "Ma'am I can give her some dry cereal but we ALWAYS have something small. It is by no means a huge breakfast." Mom told me that when she saw the menu it stated pancakes, waffles, etc. I explained to "Yes, but these are bite size servings". She then started to tell me that she assumed that the daughter (age 3 years) was getting this FULL breakfast, eggs, toast, juice, milk...kinda like hotel continental breakfast
She felt bad and stated that from then on she would make sure she would feed her in the morning.Comment
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They were providing morning snack @ 8:30(my kids get there at 7:00am already feed) and afternoon snack @ 3:30, and all milk and juice for the day. The children bring their own lunches, no breakfast is served. The center will continue to provide all drinks and afternoon snack only. My kids get up at 6:00 and eat a small breakfast (b/c it is early, they are not very hungry) and we leave the house @ 6:50, so they are hungry @ 8:30.Comment
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