Food and drink

6.5 Food and drink

Policy statement

LGMS regard snack and meal times as an important part of our day. Eating represents a social time for children and adults, and helps children to learn about healthy eating. LGMS promote healthy eating using resources and materials from Government guidelines and other sources. At snack and meal times, LGMS aim to provide nutritious food, which meets the children’s individual dietary needs.

Procedures

LGMS follow these procedures to promote healthy eating in our setting.

• Before a child starts to attend the setting, LGM ask their parents about their dietary needs and preferences, including any allergies. (See the Managing Children who are Sick, Infectious or with Allergies Policy.)
• LGMS record information about each child’s dietary needs in the Registration Form and parents sign the form to signify that it is correct.
• LGMS regularly consult with parents to ensure that our records of their children’s dietary needs – including any allergies – are up-to-date. Parents sign the updated record to signify that it is correct.
• LGMS display current information about individual children’s dietary needs so that all our staff and volunteers are fully informed about them.
• LGMS 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.
• LGMS plan menus in advance, involving children and parents in the planning. 
• LGMS display the menus of meals/snacks for parents to view.
• LGMS provide nutritious food for all meals and snacks, avoiding large quantities of saturated fat, sugar and salt and artificial additives, preservatives and colourings.
• LGMS include a variety of foods from the four main food groups:

• meat, fish and protein alternatives;

• dairy foods;

• grains, cereals and starch vegetables; and

• fruit and vegetables.

• LGMS include foods from the diet of each of the children’s cultural backgrounds, providing children with familiar foods and introducing them to new ones.
• LGMS take care not to provide food containing nuts or nut products and we are especially vigilant where we have a child who has a known allergy to nuts.

• Through discussion with parents and research reading, LGMS obtain information about the dietary rules of the religious groups to which children and their parents belong, and of vegetarians and vegans, as well as about food allergies. We take account of this information in the provision of food and drinks.
• LGMS provide a vegetarian alternative on days when meat or fish are offered and make every effort to ensure Halal meat or Kosher food is available for children who require it.
• LGMS show sensitivity in providing for children’s diets and allergies. LGMS 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.
• LGMS organise meal and snack times so that they are social occasions in which children and adults participate.
• LGMS use meal and snack times to help children to develop independence through making choices, serving food and drink and feeding themselves.
• LGMS 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.
• LGMS have fresh drinking water constantly available for the children. LGMS inform the children about how to obtain the water and that they can ask for water at any time during the day.
• In accordance with parents’ wishes, LGMS offer children arriving early in the morning, and/or staying late, an appropriate meal or snack.
• LGMS inform parents who provide food for their children about the storage facilities available in our setting. 
• LGMS give parents who provide food for their children information about suitable containers for food.
• In order to protect children with food allergies, LGMS discourage children from sharing and swapping their food with one another.
• For young children who drink milk, LGMS provide whole pasteurised organic milk. Although LGMS may slowly introduce semi-skimmed milk from the age of two years; firstly into meals and dishes, such as on cereal or in white sauces, before offering it as a drink, so that the transition is gradual.
• For each child under two, LGMS provide parents with daily written information about feeding routines, intake and preferences.

Packed lunches 

LGMS normally provide all the food for the children. On the rare occasion and only when children have severe dietary requirements will parents be permitted to supply packed lunches.  

Where LGMS cannot provide cooked meals and children are required to bring packed lunches, LGMS :

• ensure perishable contents of packed lunches are refrigerated or contain an ice pack to keep food cool;
• inform parents of our policy on healthy eating;
• inform parents of whether LGMS  have facilities to microwave cooked food brought from home;
• encourage parents to provide sandwiches with a healthy filling, fruit, and milk based deserts, such as yoghurt or crème fraîche, where LGMS  can only provide cold food from home. LGMS  discourage sweet drinks and can provide children with water or milk;
• No nuts will be allowed in the packed lunches due to children on the premises with nut allergies

• discourage packed lunch contents that consist largely of crisps, processed foods, sweet drinks and sweet products such as cakes or biscuits. LGMS  reserve the right to return this food to the parent as a last resort;
• provide children bringing packed lunches with plates, cups and cutlery; and
• ensure that adults sit with children to eat their lunch so that the mealtime is a social occasion.

Legal framework

• Regulation (EC) 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Hygiene of Foodstuffs.

Further guidance

• Safer Food, Better Business (Food Standards Agency 2011)

Other useful Pre-school Learning Alliance publications

• Nutritional Guidance for the Under Fives (Ed. 2010) 
• The Early Years Essential Cookbook (2009)
• Healthy and Active Lifestyles for the Early Years (2012)