Food, Food and More Food

Feeding the kids, no matter how old they are, is one of the main issues of good childcare.

We hear so many nightmare stories about how children are given a steady diet of chickpeas in one childcare facility, and not enough food in another, a piece of cheese for lunch someplace unlicensed, and graham crackers for every snack in a center, it may be interesting to parents to understand the rules surrounding meals in childcare.

The United States Department of Agriculture Child Care Food Program, better known as USDACCFP has been around since World War II. It was established and designed to amend growth and development problems in America’s poorer children whose parents had to work, and who found themselves in full time care. The program paid child care providers to do it right, and it still does.

The program inspects childcare facilities that are on the program. They reimburse the money spent on food and food maintenance.

Essentially, the program demands that children be fed certain food components at meal times. Meals may not be skipped and must be served in a reasonably timely manner.

The food program is not demanding.

For breakfast, a child needs to have milk, a grain product and a fruit or vegetable.

For lunch, a child needs to have milk, a protein, two fruits or vegetables or one of each, and a grain product.

For snack, a child needs to have one serving from any two food groups – like milk and crackers.

Lots of people are confused about the food program because the food program’s nutrition often differs from individual points of view. For example: a breakfast of eggs and bacon and potatoes and milk would not count as a reimbursable meal, but a breakfast of toast, raisins and milk would. It’s a matter of serving all components which are fruit or vegetable, bread and milk.

It’s the same with lunch. A peanut butter sandwich and milk and canned soup is not a lunch that is reimbursable, but a slice of cheese, a piece of bread, a quarter apple, a teaspoon of raisins and milk fulfills the USDACCFP component list.

As a monitor for the USDACCFP for over ten years, I realize the shortcomings of most people’s idea of nutrition. There’s a steady quarrel at my house about the “food-ability” of things like canned pasta, canned soup, boxed macaroni and cheese, Jell-O, and ready-mades.

“Peanut butter is not a food.” The fight’s on.

Peanut butter is half a protein, and as a legitimate source of protein for a child’s lunch, one must add beans or peas or cheese or egg, so why serve the peanut butter to begin with unless it’s just a snack?

Likewise, canned soup and pasta has no nutritional value. Neither does Jell-O, canned pudding, or most store- bought cookies.

Understanding good nutrition is only half the lesson. That’s the head lesson.

The heart lesson is realizing that food is not a “budget cutter.” Cheaping out on a menu to save a few dollars is about as dumb as it comes because food is an investment in life. Feed a child well, and not only will the doctor bills evaporate, but the adult will also be a healthier person. That’s the heart lesson.

Food is the heart of a child’s day. Food is fun; food is replenishing; food is a discovery.

The best plan for feeding children is to make half of it child-friendly and half of it child-discovery.

Starting in August, menus will be posted at the front of the school. We are going to join the USDACCFP. One of the outstanding agreements we have at the Garden School is that food is a priority. For us, it’s a moral issue, so our menus more than exceed the Federal requirements, and they always have.

If you would like to come and eat with your child, please let us know. We serve our lunches family style, and we would be happy to set a place for you.