Food And Drink
Noah’s Ark Pre-school
Food and Drink
Policy statement
We ask for food brought from home to meet the Voluntary Food and Drink Guidelines for Early Years Settings in England. We offer snacks that meet the Voluntary Food and Drink Guidelines. This setting regards snack and lunch time as an important part of the setting's session.
Eating represents a social time for children and adults and helps children to learn about healthy eating. We promote healthy eating through daily routines and regular targeted activities. At snack times, we aim to provide nutritious food, which meets the children's individual dietary needs.
We encourage parents to provide healthy and nutritious lunch and celebrate this in our monthly lunch award. Parents are informed in our joining instructions what constitutes a healthy lunch. Food cooked from home needs to be kept cold with an ice pack as should sandwiches as well as yoghurts. The pre-school has some icepacks available, but expect parents to provide these with their children’s lunches. Parents are informed that correct storing of food at the right temperature will avoid children becoming ill with food that has gone off.
Procedures
We follow these procedures to promote healthy eating in our setting.
Before a child starts to attend the setting, we find out from parents their children's dietary needs and preferences, including any allergies. (See the Managing Children with Allergies policy.)
Parents’ record information about each child's dietary needs in her/his registration record and we keep a separate allergy list in the trolley.
We ask parents to ensure that our records of their children's dietary needs – including any allergies – are up-to-date.
We display current information about individual children's dietary needs so that all staff and volunteers are fully informed about them.
We implement systems to ensure that children receive only food and drink that is consistent with their dietary needs and preferences as well as their parents' wishes.
We inform parents of our snack time choices.
We include:
Fruit/vegetables on a twice daily basis.
We provide children with familiar foods during activities and also introduce them to new ones.
We are a nut free pre-school and request parents not to provide snacks/lunch with foods containing nuts.
We require staff to show sensitivity in providing for children's diets and allergies.
Staff do not use a child's diet or allergy as a label for the child or make a child feel singled out because of her/his diet or allergy.
We use snack times to help children develop independence. Water can be taken without help. Fruit, vegetable and e.g. breadsticks are selected by the children and they carry these to their place at the table.
At lunch time, children find their lunch box and open its contents as independently as possible. They are encouraged to ask for help by saying ‘help me please’.
The children are encouraged to eat their main food first before eating their treats, but no child will be made to eat everything up. Uneaten food will be returned in the lunchbox to allow parents to monitor amounts eaten and adjust accordingly.
We always seek advice from parents about their child’s eating habits, for example at their taster session.
We provide children with utensils that are appropriate for their ages and stages of development and that take account of the eating practices in their cultures.
We have fresh drinking water constantly available for the children. We inform the children about how to obtain the water and that it is available to them at any time during the day.
We give parents who provide food for their children information about suitable containers for food and how to ensure that it is kept at the right temperature. In order to protect children with food allergies, we discourage children from sharing and swapping their food with one another.
For children who drink milk, we provide semi-skimmed milk and ask parents to provide alternative milk such as soya in case of allergy or sensitivity.
Before a child starts to attend the setting, we find out from parents their children's dietary needs and preferences, including any allergies. (See the Managing Children with Allergies policy.)
Parents’ record information about each child's dietary needs in her/his registration record and we keep a separate allergy list in the trolley.
We ask parents to ensure that our records of their children's dietary needs – including any allergies – are up-to-date.
We display current information about individual children's dietary needs so that all staff and volunteers are fully informed about them.
We implement systems to ensure that children receive only food and drink that is consistent with their dietary needs and preferences as well as their parents' wishes.
We inform parents of our snack time choices.
We include:
Fruit/vegetables on a twice daily basis.
We provide children with familiar foods during activities and also introduce them to new ones.
We are a nut free pre-school and request parents not to provide snacks/lunch with foods containing nuts.
We require staff to show sensitivity in providing for children's diets and allergies.
Staff do not use a child's diet or allergy as a label for the child or make a child feel singled out because of her/his diet or allergy.
We use snack times to help children develop independence. Water can be taken without help. Fruit, vegetable and e.g. breadsticks are selected by the children and they carry these to their place at the table.
At lunch time, children find their lunch box and open its contents as independently as possible. They are encouraged to ask for help by saying ‘help me please’.
The children are encouraged to eat their main food first before eating their treats, but no child will be made to eat everything up. Uneaten food will be returned in the lunchbox to allow parents to monitor amounts eaten and adjust accordingly.
We always seek advice from parents about their child’s eating habits, for example at their taster session.
We provide children with utensils that are appropriate for their ages and stages of development and that take account of the eating practices in their cultures.
We have fresh drinking water constantly available for the children. We inform the children about how to obtain the water and that it is available to them at any time during the day.
We give parents who provide food for their children information about suitable containers for food and how to ensure that it is kept at the right temperature. In order to protect children with food allergies, we discourage children from sharing and swapping their food with one another.
For children who drink milk, we provide semi-skimmed milk and ask parents to provide alternative milk such as soya in case of allergy or sensitivity.
Legal Framework
Regulation (EC) 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the
hygiene of foodstuffs