Pre-School and Daycare

What is your preschool's snack policy?

1.  Is it school provided, home provided, or a combo?

2.  Are nut products allowed?

3.  Are there any nutritional requirements - whole grain, real fruit / veggie, no HFCS, etc.?

4.  Are parents allowed to do prep at home (cutting, baking, etc.?) or do items have to be store bought / prepped at school due to allergy concerns?

 

5.  Is there a snacktime when all kids eat, or is it more like a center where kids go, do a tiny bit of prep, and eat when they want?

 

Our preschool served fudge ripple ice cream with juice last week and I am on a rampage to change things.  So far I am getting a sob story about how hard it is to serve 2 food groups, not have the 2 yr olds choke, be 1000% nut free which means no home prep at all, and budget concerns.  I mostly just want them to be served real fruit or veggies once in a while!

Jenni ~~Alex & Avery ~~ 6/13/06~~Adam ~~3/26/08

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Re: What is your preschool's snack policy?

  • DD's school provides the snacks.

    I've seen peanut butter on the menu so nut products are allowed.

    They mostly do fruits and crackers, etc for snacks. I know they have never had ice cream.

  •  Our school provides snacks and it's generally things like carrot sticks w/ ranch, crackers with cream cheese, pears, apples, etc.  I'd be livid at ice cream too.
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  • During the "school year", the students provide snack every day, except Friday which is Shabbat, and they get challah and juice.

    It is not a peanut-free school, and since we don't eat processed food at home, I make everything or serve fruit, homemade crackers, etc.

    Other parents serve goldfish, fruit, granola bars, etc.  

    During the summer program, we bring in a big snack for the summer (like a box of granola bars, etc), and the kids get popsicles on swim day (once/week).  I don't think they do Shabbat services during the summer program...though I can't remember.  

     

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  • It's not that hard to serve from 2 food groups that are nut free and 2 year old friendly.  I do provide snack twice daily and I do serve nuts (peanut butter).  I will not lie and say we've never served kids ice cream or cookies because we have.  However, it's because it's been left over from a party (where the parents provided it).  I try and serve snack for at least one snack per day.  The beginning of the month it's generally fresh fruit and towards the end it's canned. It can become very expensive to serve fresh fruit every day, but it's doable in certain ways.  We do pears, apples, and oranges most of the time.  We will change it up in the summer months to include watermelon or other in season fruits.

    Can you maybe offer to bring in a watermelon or a bag of apples?  We generally serve cheese or crackers with the fruit.  It is tough sometimes to get 2 food groups, but it's totally doable without giving them ice cream and juice (we hardly ever give them juice).

    If it's occasional I wouldn't stress over it, if it's frequent then you have a very valid concern and I would bet they are out of compliance to be serving ice cream all the time.

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  • School provides morning snack, each child provides afternoon snack once a month and school provides afternoon snack when there is no child assigned.

    There is a large "No Nuts" statement on all calendars and lists sent home related to snacks.  It isn't a school-wide policy, but is a room to room issue based on students with allergies. 

    The school serves 1 fruit and 1 grain.  Fruit is to be fresh, dried or canned/packaged only if packed in water (not syrup).  Applesauce and fruit leather are acceptable, too.  But no fruit snacks that are mostly sugar.

    Grains include crackers, cereal, cereal bars, etc.  They prefer things with whole grain and limited sugar.  You can also send in muffins, banana bread, etc.  And sometimes they make banana bread as a class activity and then eat it for snack.  :-)

    Snacktime is a class by class group activity.  The teachers distribute the snacks and all of the kids sit down to eat together.

    I usually send dried fruit and whole grain crackers or cut-up kiwi or grapes with a whole grain cereal.

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  • When dd went to daycare, the food was my biggest complaint. They never did ice cream as a snack though. Animal crackers, goldfish, etc were common at snack time. At meals though they did serve a more balanced diet, it was mostly canned fruit and veggies, but at least they were fruit and veggies. 

     The food was all provided by the center, but if a parent had concerns could modify or suppliment when necissary.

    Yogurt is an excellent substitute for ice cream, veggie sticks w/ dip, apples/pears/grapes etc all easy

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  • 1.  Is it school provided, home provided, or a combo? school provides all food but many kids bring in something in the morning, or at least those that get there around when my kids do since breakfast is not until 8 I drop off at 7.  My kids each eat a Nutrigrain bar and many kids have cereal of some kind at that time.

    2.  Are nut products allowed? No

    3.  Are there any nutritional requirements - whole grain, real fruit / veggie, no HFCS, etc.? All food provided and they follow the state guidelines since they are part of the food program

    4.  Are parents allowed to do prep at home (cutting, baking, etc.?) or do items have to be store bought / prepped at school due to allergy concerns?  No, all food brought in for birthdays or other special occasions must be store bought and in the original package.

     

    5.  Is there a snacktime when all kids eat, or is it more like a center where kids go, do a tiny bit of prep, and eat when they want?  All meal and snack times are on a schedule and the cook does the prep and the kids all eat at the same times.  The infant room is the only excpetion as the kids eat on their schedule. 

     As far as ice cream, if its once in a while, I am missing what the big deal is.  My center will sometimes do ice cream parties and they ahve an ice cream truck come a few times in the summer.  Its not all the time and fruit is part of every breakfast and a veggie is part of every lunch so they are getting choices from all the food groups and a ice cream treat or a cookie every so often is fine.  I give them sweets at home from time to time.  Not all the time but everything in moderation is fine.  My kids eat a very balanced diet and looking at overall of what they eat - they are pretty darn good eaters.

    Jenni Mom to DD#1 - 6-16-06 DD#2 - 3-13-08 
  • imageJenniC1135:

    1.  Is it school provided, home provided, or a combo?  100% School provided

    2.  Are nut products allowed?  When there are no allergies, I believe they are.  Every few months they send home a sheet to update the school on allergies.

    3.  Are there any nutritional requirements - whole grain, real fruit / veggie, no HFCS, etc.?  They buy all local and/or organic.  All real fruit/veg.  Whole grains.  The chef is really awesome.  He was trained in the Bordeaux region of France and he really has very high standards.  He won't even use pre-made stocks for his soups and sauces.  He does them all from scratch.  Veg stocks take only an hour, but when he has a meat stock going, those bones are boiling for 6 hours. 

    Some kids really like hanging out with him in the kitchen.  He's teaching them proper food handling and gets them involved.  DD hasn't done much cooking yet, but she sure does take advantage of his tasting atelier.  He's always got bits of things for them to try.  (The baked kale chips are a hit.)  And there is always herbal/fruit tea if the kids want it.  Hot chocolate some times, too.  (Real milk with a small bit of good quality dark chocolate shaved in.) 

    I could go on.  But I'll stop here.  I want this man to come and cook at OUR house.

    4.  Are parents allowed to do prep at home (cutting, baking, etc.?) or do items have to be store bought / prepped at school due to allergy concerns?  The chef does it all.  The other day he made fresh scones with raspberry coulis from the berries that were picked at the farm next door last summer.  (And frozen, of course.)

     

    5.  Is there a snacktime when all kids eat, or is it more like a center where kids go, do a tiny bit of prep, and eat when they want?

    Like I said, the tasting atelier is open as long as the chef is there.  However, they all have a set time when trays of snacks are ready for each class.  They found a lot of value in the kids eating together.   Children volunteer to get the snacks from the kitchen and serve them to their peers.  Plus, it's good for them to sit together and be socially appropriate around a table or circle.  Snack often happens outside, though, too when the weather is nice.  Picnic style.  They're very often out hiking on one of the pretty trails right outside the school property.

     

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  • 1.  Is it school provided, home provided, or a combo?

    --Home provided, we buy for the week (it's a 5day a week program)

    2.  Are nut products allowed?

    --Not this year

    3.  Are there any nutritional requirements - whole grain, real fruit / veggie, no HFCS, etc.?

    --"Healthy", there is NO way anyone would bring ice cream, juice, or anything like that.  Maybe muffins.  They only get something sweet (like a cookie) when it's someones birthday.

    4.  Are parents allowed to do prep at home (cutting, baking, etc.?) or do items have to be store bought / prepped at school due to allergy concerns? 

    --Yeah, I think it's allowed but I doubt anyone does it.  She goes to Montessori so often prep is part of the learning--they do easy cutting, spreading, etc themselves.  We just bring bags of bagels & a tub of cc, boxes of crackers, bags of fruit, bags of veggies, etc.  Usually stuff they can prep themselves or w/ the help of the teachers.

    5.  Is there a snacktime when all kids eat, or is it more like a center where kids go, do a tiny bit of prep, and eat when they want?  

    --Montessori so there is a station that is snack table & they go there when they want/when it's available.


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