Sample Menu
Our main courses incorporate a selection of five or six types of fresh vegetables within the dish (for example carrots, broccoli, swede, parsnips, cabbage, cauliflower) and is also served with a choice of vegetables at the side to encourage the children to gain experience and to enjoy a variety of different flavours and textures. There may be a few seasonal or dietary variations to the daily plan. Dairy/Gluten free variations to this menu can be offered.
Our food is freshly prepared on a daily basis and great care is taken to use only choice ingredients that promote healthy eating and are unlikely to create dietary problems. We ask parents to advise us in writing of any significant dietary conditions that may require variations from the set menu
Nutritional Information
We encourage good manners and eating habits for our children. We plan a nutritious and wholesome menu providing more than the recommended “5 a day” fruit and vegetable servings. We try to be as adventurous as we can, using unusual and interesting tastes of foods from around the world. Our food is freshly prepared and we use low sugar/fat options wherever possible. Where possible we make our own bread, rolls and tea-breads.
We use home-grown seasonal vegetables and fruits and organic produce whenever possible. Our meat is purchased from a local butcher and is from the Real Meat Company (hormone free and traditionally farmed). It is meticulously chosen and cuts used are very lean and low in fat. Our sandwiches, toast, etc. are prepared with sunflower margarine. We use of both brown and white bread.
Our children learn from an early age to enjoy mealtimes together with their friends, and good table manners appear as a matter of course. Children who attend full days will be encouraged to clean their teeth after their dinner.
We ask all parents if possible to give breakfast before they come to school. All children receive a morning snack such as a toast, fruit or a plain biscuit (or cake for a birthday) with milk or water, a cooked dinner and pudding (as above), and afternoon tea. Drinks offered are either milk or water.
Afternoon Teas
Our Cook makes a selection of healthy teas including vegetable bakes, soups and pasta dishes accompanied by home-made rolls and bread. For sandwiches or toast we use a variety of savoury fillings like hummus, cheese, sliced ham, cucumber and Marmite We also use honey and home-made fruit “butters” (these are made from home-grown fruits from our allotment and orchards and are only half the sugar of normal jams). With afternoon tea we serve a selection of raw fruits and vegetables. (Apple, banana, pear, nectarine, mango, seedless grapes, carrot and cucumber to name a few.)
Special Occasions
On special occasions such as children’s birthdays or “leaving” teas some parents ask to bring in a birthday cake or some party foods to be shared with their friends. We do have a number of children with special dietary needs and so we would ask parents to respect our policy concerning cakes or other items with highly coloured icing and snack foods with high salt and sugar contents, choosing in preference more natural foods without colourings and such additives. Please ask the Supervisor for details of foods that all of children may enjoy.
For Our Babies
Our Cook prepares special vegetarian dinners and teas for babies who are being weaned, and we then gradually introduce (in close liaison with parents) fish, white meats and then lamb. These dishes are graduated from puree to mashed to chopped as the child progresses.
For tea, unweaned babies are offered baby rice, fresh fruit or vegetables, progressing on to a variety of vegetable bakes (for example, courgette, carrot, cauliflower, broccoli, butternut squash, parsnip and sweet potato) until they are able to have the set menu afternoon tea.
Every effort is made to accommodate children with special diets but other than these special cases it is expected that all children will follow the normal menu pattern.
