Food Policy

Food Policy

At Pitter Patter Play Ltd we aim to educate our children with the skills, knowledge and understanding to enable them to make informed healthy lifestyle choices. To do that effectively we need to work in partnership with children, parents and carers and the partner school in securing the best for every child.

We are guided by the Welsh Government best practice guidance on food and nutrition.

34509 Food and Nutrition – Best Practice Guidance (gov.wales)

• All children attending the setting need to bring a refillable water bottle that is clearly labelled.
• When operational, children attending breakfast club are given a choice of toast or healthy cereal (dairy alternative milk and spread are available).
• Nursery children receive a snack mid-morning and mid-afternoon.
• After school children receive a light tea, this is not intended to replace a full evening meal with their families when they go home.
• Children who are present over the lunch period need to bring in a packed lunch from home. This must be ready to eat food (no hot foods or food that requires reheating).  Where children are bringing in foods from home, they must be healthy, balanced, and nutritious.  Further guidance on what to pack are available later in this policy.

Food provided at the setting is healthy, balanced, and nutritious.  We cater for children with dietary and allergen requirements.  Milk and water are available at snack times. Children have open access to their water bottles all day and these are refilled by staff as necessary.

Snack and mealtimes are a social time and form part of our daily routine that includes hand hygiene, food preparation, table setting and helping to clear away.

Aims

• To ensure children have a suitable snacks and meals that sustains and prepares them for learning.
• To provide a safe, healthy and appealing eating environment for children bringing in packed lunches and ensure that free, fresh drinking water is available at all times.
• To help children develop an understanding of healthy eating.
• To promote the national standards for healthier eating.
• To support parents and carers in providing a healthy packed lunch that meets the same standards as food provided by Pitter Patter Play Ltd

The following guidelines for lunchbox contents comes from the Welsh Government’s best practice guidance for childcare settings.  Please ensure that your child’s lunchbox is labelled with their name.

The recommended contents of a healthy lunch box are:

• A good portion of starchy food e.g. bread, crackers, pasta or rice salad.
• Plenty of fruit and vegetables e.g. an apple, orange, banana, cucumber and carrot sticks, small box of raisins or any other fruit or vegetable. If sending grapes these must be cut as uncut grapes pose a choking hazard.
• A portion of dairy food e.g. yoghurt.
• A bottle of water labelled with your child’s name to avoid cross contamination.
• One small biscuit e.g. kit-kat, penguin, club, cake bar etc. – This is equivalent to a preschool dessert

Special diets and allergies:

• Pitter Patter Play recognises that some pupils may require special diets for medical, ethical or religious reasons that do not allow for standards to be met exactly. For example, a diabetic child may need to bring an emergency sweet snack to the setting. In these cases, parents and carers are responsible for ensuring the food from home is specific for the child’s needs.

Packed lunches should not include:

• Chocolate bars, or sweets
• Fizzy drinks, squash, juice etc
• Food that requires reheating (due to food hygiene guidelines)
• Hot food in thermos containers (due to Health and Safety guidelines)

The setting is not responsible for providing:

• Fridge space, so we request that food from home is in insulated bags with freezer blocks or frozen drinks cartons to keep food cool, appetising and safe where possible.
• We do not cook/reheat food, all packed lunch food must be ready to eat without the need for heating.
• We do not allow hot food in thermos containers as we are unable to individually monitor that the temperature is appropriate.

Monitoring and evaluation:

We fully respect individual parent’s food choices for their children and understand that there are many different needs and tastes. However, if lunchbox contents regularly fall short of the expectations in this policy, we will send a reminder home to parents.

We want to work with parents to educate our children about healthy dietary choices so that the children, through the understanding of a balanced diet, will develop a greater appreciation of a healthy lifestyle.

This Policy was adopted on	Signed on Behalf of Pitter Patter Play Ltd	Date for review
20 May 2024		May 2025

Parent Signature_____________________ Date ___________________________