DC Food Menus

Taylor44

If your DC provides food, breakfast, lunch and a snack, how do you feel about the quality of the menu?  Does your DC offer a good selection of items?  My son is getting ready to move to the next room where the DC provides all of the meals.  They gave me a menu for this month, and I was not impressed to say the least.  One day, a poptart is listed as breakast.  This is not a breakfast in my book.  I just wanted to know if my standards are too high.

sara1104

our daycare follows the state guidelines, and I can't say I am impressed either.  We provide breakfast, but they provide all else.  They have a 4 week rotating menu, so at least they only get "bad" stuff once a month.  For me the worst is a snack is fruit loops (WTH?).  So, either you find a new place, live with it, or else take their own food in.  As much as we pay, it seems like there would be other options out there.

mrsmikey

I think our DC has a decent menu.  Every now and then there will be something like a pop tart on there, but not often.  They offer alot of fruits and veggies.  I guess it's not the best, but it's basically what I expected.  Usually for breakfast he has some kind of fruit and some kind of grain, like toast.  Sometimes they have cereal, but it's not the sugary kind.  The lunch menu varies, but there's a meat, veggie, fruit and grain.  I'm sure the veggies were canned, and have salt in them.  And I'm sure the fruits were in syrup and are sugary.  But I don't expect a DC to use organic, no-sugar, no-salt type foods.  It's just not in their budget.

katie277s

I would not be happy with "poptarts" as breakfast at all.  My previous DC went by state guidelines, but I thought it was always very good.  They received a fruit, veggie, protein and dairy at lunch, and breakfast usually consisted of ether toast, cheerios, scrambled eggs, waffles or something like that. 

At DS current DC, all the meals are home cooked and he is provided a fruit, veggie and protein at lunch, and healthy snacks.  She is Chinese, so she tries to incorporate different kinds of Chinese food into his diet as well. 

MrsAmers

Our daycare is part of the National School Lunch program, which regulates at lunch what food groups the kids need to be offered, so lunches are very well balanced.

I wasn't so crazy about the baby food they offered - only 3 fruits and 3 veggies, so I sent my own back in the infant room.  But once DD moved onto table food I've been vary happy with their offerings.  One of the moms at the center is a chef and nutritionist, and she helped to do an overhaul of the kitchen program.

They offer fresh or frozen veggies and fruits, and they buy some locally so they can get organic affordably.  They only do canned if they are packed in water.  They offer whole grains, non-sugary cereals and protein with each lunch.  Snacks are usually 1 fruit and 1 grain, and they are offered milk with lunch and snacks.  They also switched to hormone-free milk.  I was thinking about sending in organic, but since I'm mostly worried about the hormones we decided not to send in our own milk.

I don't think your standards are too high. 

mrsnewlywed2005

i'm having the same issue w/ my dc.  they serve canned fruits.  wth???  on paper, it looks great.  they're getting peaches, pears, etc., but they conveniently left out the syrup that these things are swimming in. i just took dd off of the canned fruits at dc, and have to remember to increase her fresh fruit intake at home.

there are high standard daycares out there!  the one we really want to get dd into, and which has a 2 year wait list, offers FRESH fruit everyday. 
 

flyer23

Honestly, this is a big reason why DD isn't in daycare right now. We looked at daycares when we moved out-of-state, right around her first birthday, and the menus ranged from OK to really horrible -- one place had biscuits and gravy for breakfast, another had juice and brownies for a snack.

Instead, we take her to a SAHM where we provide all the meals and snacks.

I don't think your standards are too high. Poptarts for breakfast are absolutely not acceptable in my opinion. Unfortunately, you may not have many options. The "best" menu I saw in my area at least had grilled chicken tenders (instead of the ubiquitious breaded chicken fingers) and rBST-free milk, but still had plenty of canned fruits and veggies.

JenGK

Poptarts for breakfast would not be acceptable to me.  We're really lucky with the center DS goes to.  Breakfast each day is either non-sugary cereal, bagel, or bran muffin, served with fresh fruit; snacks include yogurt, cheese sticks, soft pretzels, fruit, and cracker; lunch varies from whole wheat pasta and sauce, to quiche, to grilled chicken, always with veggies and fruit.