At Living Springs, we provide morning and afternoon snack, and parents provide lunch.
As an ABC and NAEYC accredited center Living Springs is committed to ensuring all students have a healthy and balanced lunch.
- We serve dairy milk daily with lunch (unless a family has provided a pediatrician-authorized milk alternative).
- We also serve dairy milk with snacks depending upon the food components served.
- Water is available throughout the day and with snacks and meals.
- Juice is not served. In this age group, it is recommended to only serve 4 oz. of juice per child per day. With this small amount, we reserve this for families to serve juice at home if they would like.
- If your child has a food item that is not school-appropriate, we will send it home with them.
Your child’s lunch should include the following:
2 servings of Fruit/Vegetable. Fresh fruit is always a great option. Bananas and clementines are easy for children to peel themselves and a great way to help with fine motor development.
1 serving of Protein. Meat, chicken, fish or meat alternatives such as beans, peas, eggs, nuts, and seeds. These alternatives also provide many nutrients including protein and iron.
1 serving of Whole Grains. Whole-wheat tortillas, crackers, bread or roll, brown rice, and whole wheat pasta are great ideas.
1 serving of Dairy. We provide milk with meals.
Many lunch ideas can be found on Pinterest.
Please keep in mind the following points as you prepare your child’s lunch:
- Please label everything with your child’s name on it.
- We ask parents to cut food small enough that the pieces could be swallowed whole.
- Please do not pack food that young children are likely to choke on such as peanuts and popcorn, hotdogs and grapes are okay as long as they are cut small enough.
- Lunchtime is between 11:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.
- Children eat in their classrooms.
- Unless a doctor’s note is provided, please do not send your child with extra snacks, we provide a wide range of healthy foods for your child at snack time.
Snacks:
We provide Milk and snacks for all children at snack time. Common snacks are fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, cheese, and wheat bread/crackers.
** We follow strict guidelines to prevent food allergies, and contamination. If your child has allergies or requires special food alternatives, families are welcome to provide these outside food and/or drink. For example: At snack time, we serve milk; parents may provide lactose or dairy free milk for your child with a doctor’s note.**
What Food & Snacks LSLC CDC Serves:
Special celebrations at the CDC:
Sometimes during a holiday, a school wide event or a special week in your child’s class we may ask for families to bring in food items.
All food shared with the classroom must be sealed in its original package.
Examples: lunch meat from the deli still sealed; cupcakes from the grocery store bakery sealed; unopened yogurt tubes; unpeeled Cutie Clementine’s, unpeeled bananas.
Staff In Nutrition Education
- Staff provide opportunities for children to learn about nutrition 1 time per week or more.
- At least one teacher joins the children at the table for meals and snacks.
- Teachers model healthy eating habits in front of the children. Example: not drinking soda/ eating fast food
- Meals and snack time are planned so that children do not go more than 3 hours without being offered healthy food.
Tasty Thursday:
LSLC-CDC strives on providing a rich learning environment for all of our children through many different areas of learning. One of the most important areas we focus on is “self-help” skills as well as letting the children be involved in preparing their snack. Once a week we have Tasty Thursday where the children are given ingredients, cooking tools and recipe picture cards to follow as they make their own snack. *With the teachers help if needed :)*
Here are some examples:
