You won’t find a mince and cheese pie on the menu at Guardian Early Learning Centre Caringbah.
The early childhood education (ECE) centre recently invited a dietitian along to revamp its menu and introduce healthier eating. Dietitian Vanessa Schuldt has worked with the in-house cooks to create a new, rotating menu.
The young children are now munching on meals like oats and sultanas for breakfast, vegetable puree or celery and dip for morning tea, Moroccan lamb couscous for lunch, and a fruit platter for afternoon tea.
“While in the process of developing our winter menus, we asked Vanessa to assess the menus to ensure we are adopting best practice guidelines to create balanced, delicious and nutritious meals that will encourage the exploration of food and develop the children’s palates,” Nicki Garrett, the Guardian Early Learning Group business development head, said.
Earlier this month, Guardian Early Learning Centre Caringbah hosted an open night for parents to look at the refurbished centre, meet the centre’s educators and take part in an information session on healthy eating with Vanessa.
“Vanessa offered insightful advice on tackling fussy eaters and helpful tips to boost the immune system by adding certain ingredients to the menus, so we wanted to share this information with our parents.”
The new menu has been created to align with the NSW Ministry of Health’s caring for children standards.