Healthy Eating

It is our policy at Learning Land Nursery to promote healthy eating to the children attending.

We will achieve this by:

· Providing a freshly cooked, healthy and low in salt balanced nutritious meal at lunch time and tea time.

· Vegetables are always a part of the balanced meal.

· Fresh fruit is always available for the children and is incorporated into most of our desserts.

· Wholemeal toast is offered to the children at morning snack.

We also provide our children with healthy afternoon snack options including crackers, rice cakes, breadsticks and always have an option for the children to have a range of fruit every afternoon.

· Children have access to fresh drinking water at all times throughout the day.

· We try to provide at least 3 out of 5 portions of fruit or vegetables per day.

· Fresh milk is offered as a choice to the children at snack  times.

· We do not use salt when cooking for the children.

· We always oven bake rather that fry our food.

· Health requirements and special dietary needs are always catered for.

· Children are offered an alternative if they dislike the meal offered.

· All our meals are homemade on site daily.

· We always encourage parents who are breastfeeding to continue if they wish by expressing and freezing breast milk.

· We have healthy snack lists which are used to ensure the children are offered a wide variety of multi-cultural snacks.

We aim to provide support to our older children to prepare and help make their own snack so that we are encouraging them all to lead happy and healthy lifestyles.

Naturally we need help from the parents and carers to maintain a healthy diet for children. As a setting we do what we can but without the help of parents and carers we will not be successful.

The children enjoy eating their healthy lunches. We place an emphasis on providing children with the skills and knowledge they require to lead happy and healthy lives, but to be also independent and self-assured in this learning experience of meal times! The children are encouraged to wash their own hands, pour their own drinks, choose whether they'd like milk or water and wash their hands and faces after they have eaten. Meal times are an excellent, valuable learning experience for socialisation and independence.