Frustrated with bad daycare food/snacks

[Anonymous]

I think the best way for parents to push for better food is to send their children to daycares with good food choices. The others will match to keep up with the rest. Tell the daycare that you are not choosing that you are going with one that has healthier food. They'll get the message. We searched and found both a home daycare and a montessori preschool with healthy food and told the others that we weren't interested in having our children eat cheetos for snacks and hot dogs for lunch.

[Anonymous]

Wish it could reach a point where quality of food was a criteria for all parents in actually making a choice and daycares felt pressure to make good food choices to keep business. And to advertise that as a real benefit. We shouldnt have to look far and wide. It was the norm. It should be, given obesity rates in this country. We should all be doing more.

[Anonymous]

The more I think about the food situation the more worried I am becoming about what my daughter will eat once she starts daycare.

We're seriously considering BCDS. Does anyone have experience with the food they serve there? One person said it's not as bad as ChildTime but basically anything is great compared to canned food. We're not expecting it to be like one of those 100% organic daycares that only serve raw veggies all the time but we are hoping the food is prepared decently without any fried stuff. It's really hard to tell from the menu how healthy the food actually is.
Thanx in advance

[Anonymous]

BCDS uses the Good Food Company. A few other daycares in the same area use this service and not good as the food that some places serve (i.e. organic places) but they do have some standards.

Here's what the GFC Web site says about their food:

Good Food offers a nutritious, well balanced meal that is lower in processed foods than other caterers. All meals meet the requirements of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and are eligible for reimbursement. We offer vegetables and fresh fruit every day. Our on-site bakery is always busy baking bread from scratch without any added preservatives or dough conditioners. Our milk is from cows not treated with Bovine Growth Hormones. We grind our beef on site from large muscle chucks and we use no scraps. The only exception is the meatballs that we use which are purchased. Our beef is fresh, safe, and delicious! It costs us more, but it is worth it. We use few canned items - our vegetables are fresh or frozen. We use whole wheat pastas, brown rice, and our homemade breads have several diferent grains and seeds. Our lunch program uses high quality ingredients for a fresher, less processed taste. It's healthy and it tastes good.

http://www.goodfoodco.com/gpage.html

You should also ask whether they use the GFC Breakfast and Snack service. Some use all three, Breakfast/Lunch/Snack, while other centers use just Lunch. If your center prepares its own Breakfast and Snack you should ask what standards they use. Happy hunting for a good daycare

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BCDS uses the Good Food Company. A few other daycares in the same area use this service and not good as the food that some places serve (i.e. organic places) but they do have some standards.

Here's what the GFC Web site says about their food:

Good Food offers a nutritious, well balanced meal that is lower in processed foods than other caterers. All meals meet the requirements of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and are eligible for reimbursement. We offer vegetables and fresh fruit every day. Our on-site bakery is always busy baking bread from scratch without any added preservatives or dough conditioners. Our milk is from cows not treated with Bovine Growth Hormones. We grind our beef on site from large muscle chucks and we use no scraps. The only exception is the meatballs that we use which are purchased. Our beef is fresh, safe, and delicious! It costs us more, but it is worth it. We use few canned items - our vegetables are fresh or frozen. We use whole wheat pastas, brown rice, and our homemade breads have several diferent grains and seeds. Our lunch program uses high quality ingredients for a fresher, less processed taste. It's healthy and it tastes good.

http://www.goodfoodco.com/gpage.html

You should also ask whether they use the GFC Breakfast and Snack service. Some use all three, Breakfast/Lunch/Snack, while other centers use just Lunch. If your center prepares its own Breakfast and Snack you should ask what standards they use. Happy hunting for a good daycare

PP, can you tell which centers are using your services?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We, as moms and dads, need to start demanding more from our preschools!! They are caring for our children - including their physical health, which should mean what they are feeding our kids too. We should push them to do more. And, as someone mentioned, it's not just what they serve, it's how they use food - as a reward, as punishment. What are they teaching our kids?!?! Unacceptable. Do parents care though? I'm surprised so few people have commented on this post....Would love to start a petition as one way of encouraging change...think it'd get momentum?

Not all preschools serve unhealthy foods; maybe that's why there haven't been more responses. My DC's school serves organic, whole foods and they are pretty insistent that any snacks or lunches sent to school be the same. If a kid brings in an "unhealthy" snack from home they substitute something that fits the guidelines. They make their own whole grain bread and hummus every week, along with a variety of other healthy offerings that the kids can help make.

If you want to have the same at your school you will need to approach the director and other parents. Is that what you mean by starting a petition? Unless you are in a public school I don't think trying to petition on a larger scale would go anywhere.

Which is your school? It sounds great. We are from California and were surprised to find little interest in organic food in this area.

[Anonymous]

My bright horizon's center used good food company. I wouldn't say it was great food at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BCDS uses the Good Food Company. A few other daycares in the same area use this service and not good as the food that some places serve (i.e. organic places) but they do have some standards.

Here's what the GFC Web site says about their food:

Good Food offers a nutritious, well balanced meal that is lower in processed foods than other caterers. All meals meet the requirements of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and are eligible for reimbursement. We offer vegetables and fresh fruit every day. Our on-site bakery is always busy baking bread from scratch without any added preservatives or dough conditioners. Our milk is from cows not treated with Bovine Growth Hormones. We grind our beef on site from large muscle chucks and we use no scraps. The only exception is the meatballs that we use which are purchased. Our beef is fresh, safe, and delicious! It costs us more, but it is worth it. We use few canned items - our vegetables are fresh or frozen. We use whole wheat pastas, brown rice, and our homemade breads have several diferent grains and seeds. Our lunch program uses high quality ingredients for a fresher, less processed taste. It's healthy and it tastes good.

http://www.goodfoodco.com/gpage.html

You should also ask whether they use the GFC Breakfast and Snack service. Some use all three, Breakfast/Lunch/Snack, while other centers use just Lunch. If your center prepares its own Breakfast and Snack you should ask what standards they use. Happy hunting for a good daycare

And they have never used pink slime. Our daycare down the street from them uses a place in alexandria with questionable "beef"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My bright horizon's center used good food company. I wouldn't say it was great food at all.

Great as in nutritious vs vanilla wafers . Schmuck.

[Anonymous]

21:53 - What's wrong with good food company? Curious as the description above sounded great. Real, healthy, minimally processed. Not your experience?

PP not a lot of organic daycare food here. Would also love to know who offers it.

[Anonymous]

Our preschool uses Good Food Company. I have tasted much of their food when I've visited my DD. I would say that most of it is pretty good. Some of it is kind of bland, IMO, but that's more about my taste preferences, not a knock against the food, which I have found consistently to be of good - high quality. Every meal comes with fresh fruit or vegetables and is served with that quasi-organic milk (not fully organic, but no BGH).

I will say that my DD's caregivers might also bring other snacks in for the kids. Popsicles during the summer, occasionally Chex mix for a party, etc. I'm not crazy about that, but I figure that she's getting good/healthy food 90% of the time, so I need to not be a crazy person about it.

[Anonymous]

I bring my kid snacks and supplement the cold cereal breakfast every morning.
It's really sad in the AM I give pancakes, oatmeal, bagel and cream cheese..etc.. And some of the other 1 year olds come stand around.
Don't know why their parents don't care or notice this as a problem
And before people start complaining they are too busy I have a very important job and I am single with NO help from the other parent.

[Anonymous]

There are definitely daycares and preschools that advertise their food. Many of the Montessori's have it as part of their curriculum. They cook with it or cut it up for a snack. Sometimes the parents are in charge of a portion of the year's snacks. You do have to pay extra for healthy food which is a turnoff to some. I personally love it even if they turn up their noses at something that isn't perfectly nutritious.
Then there are other schools that seem to flaunt how poor their snacks are. Once I saw pictures of a pretend toddler supermarket at a daycare and all the kids were picking up boxes of sugar cereals and cookies. I could tell just from this how little empasis they placed on healthy food.

[Anonymous]

I used Good Food Company, it is of course, better then canned food. But it not tasty. Just like every company they need to make profit and they also cut corners. Don't forget kids eat this food every day. I now have on site cook and I buy food from the market myself (time consuming, but when it comes to food), just like in the Hospitals, Schools need to serve best possible food to kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:21:53 - What's wrong with good food company? Curious as the description above sounded great. Real, healthy, minimally processed. Not your experience?

PP not a lot of organic daycare food here. Would also love to know who offers it.

In fairness, part of the problem with organic food only at daycare is that it drives up the cost and could price out people who otherwise would do fine at a daycare with Good Food Company or Revolution Foods. When parents are already paying upwards of $1700/month for daycare in DC, it's hard to tack on more costs. A lot of people could not afford it and the gap would continue to grow. One option is to talk to a daycare about opting out of their food program, if possible and then you could pack all-organic meals. Our kids were at a GFC and Rev Foods daycare. They loved it. Fresh fruit and veggies each day, solid main course meals. Are some of the meals what I would cook or even prefer? No. But otherwise the programs were solid and my kids had a great time. I don't get everything I want but they were safe, loved, well-cared for, having fun and learning.