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I think it is time for a change. Why does it have to be mac n cheese, hamburger, and pizza for lunch? and crackers for snacks? We are not giving our children a chance to explore new tastes, textures or colors. If prepared properly, even picky eaters will eat vegetables, whole grains and yummy meat. How do you feel about this?
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Last edited by Michael; 01-10-2011, 01:50 PM. -
I think that all parents have a choice. If you don't like the foods your daycare serves, send in your own foods for your child or find a new daycare. In my home daycare, I cook almost everything from scratch. But my clients pay more than other daycare homes in the area that do serve processed foods. Real food costs much more than processed and moat parents wont pay for it.
Also, healthy eating begins and ends at home. Daycares and schools cannot correct poor eating habits created by parents. -
Are you a provider or a parent?
If you are a provider, I fully agree with you. We all should provide the best quality food, and I do...and I charge for it.
If you are a parent, you should seek out a daycare that stresses good nutrition. You will pay more, because it costs more. I too have found that alot of parents want the BEST quality care, nutrition, and activities, but only want to pay the average.Comment
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While I agree that schools cannot correct poor eating habits at home, I know in our district they certainly don't do anything to encourage better eating habits.
I think the original poster is directing her comment towards the school system and not attacking daycares. I agree that the majority of school lunches are junk, and therefore as a parent chose to not have my children eat school lunch. It is mainly processed junk that is heated up and served. Maybe the new bill that Mrs. Obama backed directed to school lunch programs will change this, but until then, my kids will continue to take cold lunch.Comment
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I personally dont see anything wrong with school lunch they OFFER EVERDAY a fruit, a veggie, and a main course such as pizza (which is NOT unhealthy if made right), spaghetti, chicken, fish, tacos, etc and the kids ALWAYS have an option of a salad. I know this because I check the menu everyday and I also go have lunch with my kids once a month at school.Comment
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Thank you for your responses.
I am a parent who thinks that variety and quality of food are very important. I agree with you that good meals have a price and I am willing to pay more for this service. Mrs. WyoDayCarMom, Mrs Jen and Mrs JenNJ, out of curiosity, how much does a good meal cost you to prepare from scratch?
Also, do you know how much daycares typically charge for lunch or breakfast? It seems to me that they charge anywhere between $2.00 to $3.00 for an average lunch and $3.50 to $6.00 for a good lunch. Is is that a true assessment?
Finally, Mrs WyoDaycareMom, I agree with you that schools and daycares should not be responsible for food education, like they should not be responsible for teaching politeness to kids. These are values that should be taught by parents at home. However, for kids who eat breakfast, AM snack, lunch, and PM snack st daycare, they eat 80% of their meal at daycare so the food served there cannot be without nutritional value.
Anyway it is comforting to hear from you all that some daycare providers do care about the quality of food. You can be proud of your accomplishment.Comment
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I want YOU for a day care parent. Can you move to Des Moines?
Befor I switched to a fully organic menu I was able to do all home made meals for a dollar a day per kid.
See my post in this thread: https://www.daycare.com/forum/showth...ighlight=lunch
In the summer it came to about four dollars a day. See my post in this thread: https://www.daycare.com/forum/showth...ighlight=lunch
Now it is about $5.50 per child per day.
It varies quite a bit based on the season. One thing to REALLY keep in mind is the labor.
The hours of labor now is about 26-27 hours a week of dedicated time food access, prep, and storage time. Before we switched to organic it was about 20-21 hours a week. This is for eight kids doing breakfast, lunch, p.m. snack. I make EVERYTHING from scratch with whole foods.
Doing healthy whole from scratch meals requires a lot of money for the food and labor. You really have to be dedicated to it to make it happen. Just accessing the food LOCALLY one by one is a job in and of itself. There's really not a one stop shop for everything like you can do with regular store grocery shopping. In order to make it reasonably priced you have to be willing to buy in bulk, process, and store foods for the off season.
My son takes packed lunch. The school food is disgusting. If you are interested in an excellent school lunch website hook up with Ann Cooper. She's the rock star in the school lunch world right now. Friend her on Facebook and follow her links. She's my hero.
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school lunches are awful....I pack lunches everyday for all of my own children.
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I like what you are doing with your food preparation. We only use free range, cage free, non growth hormone, antibiotic free meats and eggs. Also, raw milk, cheese and butter. We will even have the Amish deliver to us in CA. It is very important to know where your food source is coming from.Comment
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We have a large Amish community in Kalona Iowa which is where I buy a lot of our food. http://www.insiderpages.com/b/133858...grocery-kalona They have been so helpful in this journey. They go old school with raising and preserving foods. I likey that
Have you seen Food Inc?Comment
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No, but I've "herd" about it. I'm determind to continue eating healthy and have an occasional Steak Tartare. I know a girl that stopped eating meat after watching it.We have a large Amish community in Kalona Iowa which is where I buy a lot of our food. http://www.insiderpages.com/b/133858...grocery-kalona They have been so helpful in this journey. They go old school with raising and preserving foods. I likey that
Have you seen Food Inc?Comment
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I got the poor reference. It IS expensive to eat well. But it is MUCH more expensive to get sick. It is true, we are what we eat. Holy really means wholly. Know the whole process. Businesses tend to make money on giving you the least while making the most. Not a good combination.Comment
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I'm sure you know this but just in case. There is a lot of cheatery in organics, free range, etc. The govermental regulations on organic can be worked around. Also, the use of the word "natural" is not regulated at all.
If possible, going TO the farms is what makes me feel better. I've visited our buffalo ranch, beef, lamb, and chicken farm, egg grower, and every place I've accessed large quantities of grains, veggies and fruit. I've also been very blessed to have day care parents putting me on the hook up from their famiy farms. One of my dc dads is an executive chef and one is a USDA food inspector. That helps a lot with accessing and making sure the food is CLEAN.
You live in California so I would bet your year around access is pretty good for local food?
The health issues are huge to me. I've been keeping track of illness days since switching to fully organic and they have been markedly less than last year BUT we have had a really mild winter so far and have been able to go outside almost every day so it's hard to say for sure. My youngest kids are also 19 months too so that helps a bit too.Comment
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