To think this has been blown out of proportion?

[PinnieTheWoo]

Bit of background: DS currently goes to nursery 9-3, 4 days a week. During his time there they get given a morning snack and lunch (afternoon snacks are served at 3:30 and 5).

Recently a group of mums has started discussing the menu and what the children get to eat and complaining that the menu isnt healthy enough (Sorry, don't want to go into too much detail as 1. It may out me and 2. I'm typing this on my phone and it will likely take ages). They've had an initial discussion with the management, and have now put together a list of requests including removal of certain foods from the menu, some suggested recipes and a full ingredient breakdown of the forthcoming month's menu to be supplied to parents.

Don't get me wrong, I think if someone has an issue about a service they are paying for they are perfectly entitled to say something but the lengths this group are going to just seem really OTT to me. I mean if you are that much against the nursery why not just remove your child? Personally I think demanding to have a monthly breakdown of all ingredients is a bit excessive - they don't have time to do this and how many parents will be studying such a list? The extra admin required for this may impact the fees we pay. DS can also be quite fussy (although I appreciate his eating habits at nursery are likely different to at home) and some days I'm happy he's eating anything at all much less worrying about how healthy one meal is. Which brings me to my last point - all this fuss over what is just 1 meal a day at nursery. Am I being too blasé about what DS is eating at nursery or are the mums right to go to war against them?

Feel free to tell me I should be taking up arms with them and that I'm a bad mother for sending DS off to have jacket potatoes with beans for lunch..... would love to hear what nursery workers and other parents think btw.

I arrived early to my son's nursery, during a snack time, and was appalled at what children were being fed. The nursery boasted having a healthy approach to food, and displayed menu that seemed reasonably good, however a healthy snack turned out to be a cold pita bread with a lump of margarine.

'Full ingredient breakdown' a month ahead, though lightbulb?

I'm pretty sure they have to be able to supply full information on every ingredient in every menu item, certainly a restaurant or hospital does. I cannot understand why places don't put this into action - if you want an excellent example of how to do it, go to McDonalds and ask for the allergy menu. You'll get an A4 laminated book that details exactly what goes into every single item on their menu, with common allergens bolded.

Cold pita bread? Oh dear, now I'm getting all twitchy about what they could be being given.

Their menus seem fine, cottage pie, lasagne, risotto. They do seem to have a lot of pasta ans rice but they have vegetables every day. They have an in house chef, which was one of the things that attracted me in the first place, and the food doesn't smell off-putting in the mornings when they are prepping it.

It is something I care about but I just feel that mums have got a rather aggressive way of getting their point across. Not that I avoid conflict.

Schools are covered by the 2014 legislation, I would imagine that would include nurseries. Here

What a load of shite. I'd be sorely tempted to tell them to fuck off, maybe emotionally abuse them and say they can't be that interested in their child by shipping them off to a nursery rather than working the land and eat what they produce themselves for their DC. Sad cretins.

It would totally depend on what they are getting at the moment - but from your last post it sounds fine to me.
I have to say, if the menus had been poor, then the way they are approaching trying to make a change does sound pretty constructive. The ingredients breakdown is OTT, but the suggesting alternative menus and recipes sounds helpful rather than purely having a moan.

I think they've made their objections known in the most constructive way- by offering examples of what they would be more happy with. Simply writing "please provide more healthy meals" could be taken to mean anything.

As for providing a break down of ingredients costing more - er, why? Don't places cooking and serving food have to cost out their menus with ingredients (from a business perspective at least), and therefore the ingredients list will have already been made and could simply be printed in an easy to read format for parents?

I think you should support them, just from the sidelines in this case because it's not your battle as you're not concerned. One day though, if you DO want any changes made to the childcare you're offered, it would be in your best interests to be able to call on the weight of numbers as well as the sensible forthright actions of these parents to back you up.

Also worth remembering that for many parents it isn't a real choice to send your child to nursery or not, as if you have to work and don't have free reliable childcare, that's what you have to do.

The funny thing is I'll bet half of them get pie and beans or alphabet spaghetti on a regular basis for there evening meals. Snobbery for the most part.

I'm not sure an in house chef really makes it better always. Most nurseries I have worked in cannot afford chefs, they call them chefs, but they are cooks with a food hygiene certificate. A lot are pushed for time and limited in skills.
Two nurseries I worked at had a great looking menu, and a glorified cook on premises but I would be shocked if they even knew how to cook from scratch the cupboards were full of value curry sauce, value spag sauce, mashed potato was potato with a fork roughly pushed through it. The roasts were alright, some days they had wafer thin ham and canned potatoes which were pretty gross tbh and sometimes they had dry pasta with a tin of baked beans stirred through it, they called it pasta bake, once every few weeks they would have the pasta and baked beans with half a sausage each next to it, that was called sausage pasta bake. I was in the baby room, the younger baby meals were mainly potato with the tiniest amounts of other foods, you couldn't even smell the other foods mixed in tho, three days out of five was the same potato, with the cod from a fish finger shared out among the babies and maybe some peas or carrot one day it was fish pie, the next time it was called cod bake, another day it was white fish and veg they were all the sake bloody thing.
Another nursery I worked at had a day on the menu that was filled pasta, it was actually tinned ravioli, and pot noodles for tea one day!
They were not cheap nurseries, they were purpose built places in sports centres they both had a nice image, but a poor food budget.

That makes me feel so sad rabbit

If I was nursery owner I would take on board what parents want then but the prices up. The children would then get a good menu but the parents would have pay for it.

Well presumably they already do pay fir it?

I mean nurseries aren't cheap. decent food should already he factored into the price surely?

that sounds like you think they should he grateful fir what they get even if that's not what was promised when they started or its absolute shit they are getting?

And are the really allowed to get away with mis leading menus?

using rabbits examples a menu can sound fine on paper. if you are signing up for pasta bakes and sausage casserole amd home made pizzas but getting baked beans stored through pasta or tins of soup with sausages added to it, surely a nursery can't be purring prices up just to offer what should have been provided in the first place

Nursery are profit making machines . No owns and runs a nursery for the good of the children

The kids are getting shit food cos that is profit margins say that is what they afford.

If you want better food then you have pay it.
If you making fuss then your fee will go up you are costing the company money .

So you really would have to pay extra to get the menu you were told you would have in the first place?

to improve quality of ingredients I get that. but surely peolel shouldn't be having to campaign or pay extra to get the menu that they were told about.

My DD's nursery seems all right food wise. They have a 4 weekly rolling menu and the majority is made from scratch. They do have things like sausages, but it's in a casserole made with tinned tomatoes and vegetables. It is always balanced with a carb, a protein and usually 2 types of veg- if there is only one for some reason then morning snack will be fruit. The nursery guarantees that over the course of a full day your child will be offered at least 5 portions of fruit and veg. Overall, the food is probably better than what I serve at home! And this is a low to averagely priced nursery for the area- when we chose it I think there was one cheaper we found and a couple slightly more expensive.

Gileswithachainsaw your examples are made up so no, nobody is having to pay extra in order not to get baked beans stirred through pasta...

Ice I can assure you they are not made up! Pasta bake at a Just Learning nursery within a sports centre was baked beans stirred through pasta. Nearly everyday was a processed meal. The menu looked fine, the children didn't know it was appalling cheap food.
The pot noodle was another nursery, they called it noodles and it was served in bowls. I wouldn't bother lying, I don't know how any of them practice now it wasn't recent but my point was that the in house chefs doesn't mean quality food and it's not ott to check, turn up to collect at lunch time one day if you have the chance.
The best nursery I worked in was a Leapfrog the cook was a trained chef, and made fantastic food on a small ingredient budget because they paid good wages and had a chef with skills.

Oh goodness, maybe I'm a crap mum, but I honestly just do not care that much. I feed the kids recently at home, if nursery/childminder/after school club feed them some meals and snacks that don't meet with the jamie Oliver privileged organic seal of approval aren't nationally perfect in every way, what of it? Haribo and coke I'd get pissed off about, sure, but I'm willing to bet my wages that this nursery is feeding the children nothing of the kind.

I think the outside companies providing hot meals are a good thing, pre made doesn't always mean processed, my ds's nursery use a company called zebadees I have collected at lunch time before, I would eat the food, it looked nice. There are a lot of details on their website and now he gets he's funded hours I only pay for the food, it's only 2.50 per day that's with the nursery giving a morning snack as we'll.

Fucks sake phone!
*decently
*nutritionally

My sons nursery where terrible food wise, claimed on site kitchen and chef... What she really meant was a room big enough to purely fit a sink/cooker/microwave. They had noodles sounds ok but it was the tesco value packet type, crackers and cheese but it was spread cheese, freash pizza translated to fridge stored brought on a Monday served on a Friday.

My daughters preschool is much better and due to the time I picked her up I clearly see what has been served as the secondary school next door provides the food as well as preschool having a mini kitchen for baking with the kids. They get full Sunday dinner, curries, cottage pies, proper pasta bakes etc the children can go up and help themselves to seconds or are helped to get more if they cannot do it alone, there is always a massive tray of mixed vegetables. Their snacks are proper cheese, crackers and various fruits, drinks are only milk or water and breakfast is toast/cereal or fruit. The only time kids getting a pudding so to speak is if they have done baking and the kids get to bring their cake home.

I do think wanting an ingredient list a month in advance is a bit much but it's nice to know your kids are getting proper food.

Oh god the pot noodles story makes my blood run cold. Sometimes I see the delivery van delivering the groceries on a Monday morning and while I see own-brand krispies I don't usually have a proper nosy. Until now!! Will try and have a proper nosy next week.

I'd actually quite like to see the ingredients list now. I know they cook things like cottage pie and bolognese from scratch as I can smell it at drop-off time but not sure about processed cheese and tinned fruit etc.

Oh god I can feel myself becoming one of those mums now! Actually, I guess that's no bad thing - if I get involved with them I can at least try and steer things more in a direction with which I'd be happier with them approaching the management (sorry does that last sentence make sense?)