Childminders Club: Meals

[Tan1959]

Hi all

For those of you who provide meals inclusive in your fees, do you only provide that meal if a set amount of hours are booked ?

Ie. I offer morning 8-1, afternoon 1-6 and all day bookings but I usually calculate that if a full day booked then all meals, inclusive of breakfast are included. Lunch / dinner is included for am/pm sessions respectively.

If a four hour session is booked, I don't feel that the fee really takes into account a lunch or dinner. What do the rest of you do ?

and parents - what would your expectations be with regard to this? would you expect a lunch or dinner to be provided if you had only booked 3/4 hours if it coincided with lunch or dinner time?

Obviously, all snacks/drinks are provided for, irrespective of hours booked.
Thanks

Hi

I charge a flat rate inclusive of all meals & clubs no matter what hours & times the children are with me. Sometimes this works out in my favour & sometimes not, but I find that it is easier for the children to join in with all meals if they are there & activities & prevents any exclusions.

Hope this helps

Can't answer this - I don't provide meals (they bring their own)

Tan, a lot depends on the age of the child and what else you are doing. For 4 hours yes I would expect a "meal" but not necessarily a full dinner ie meat and vegs. It could be a sandwich and fruit (or whatever you had in the fridge). Parents should raise that with you I think, as you don't know if they plan to take them home to feed them straight away. As a parent doing a new booking with a cm, for 3-4 hours, I would expect to agree what food might be available, especially in the case of younger children, and would depend on timing eg what else my child had eaten that day (and also who else you are catering for at that time)... if you are feeding others what's another plate. All depends what you are offering and if it was a "dinner" naturally I would expect that to be in the price (ie not get it for free). Personally it would be more important for me to feel that my child would not to go hungry in a new environment than feel they couldn't ask for food coz it hadn't been paid for.

Thanks all for replies. Interesting, as always .

I do wonder though if some parents are actually aware of how much we, as childminders, spend on feeding our minded children - I know for sure that my shopping bill has increased quite significantly since minding began. Of course all children in my care are fed heaps irrespective of whether a parent has 'paid' or not, they feel comfortable and confident to tell me if they are hungry. Not so sure though Madmaz that I agree with 'what's another plate' - would surely depend on how many mindees eh?

I agree, when I had 4 mindees I couldn't believe how much the food bill went up (yeah, some of you will laugh at what I was providing but I've learnt from that ). I agree that the 'what's another plate' comment isn't really fair as it depends on age, how many and whether you've got enough to go round. If one was wanting dinner as and when they felt like it, you wouldn't know how much food to buy each week. If you bought the normal amount and then the extra one was hungry, everyone else would have to have smaller portions which isn't fair as they have booked and paid for it OR you buy in the extra food each time and sometimes it's wasted and has cost you extra.

I provide snacks for free and would never let a child be hungry but you need to know whether or not a child is planning to stay for dinner imo.

I personally have a set rate per hour with all snacks, meals and drinks included but I charge £1.50 per day for a cooked evening meal.

HTH

I was thinking of charging 50p for mid mornings and mid afternoon snacks, then 1.25 for lunch and 1.25 dinner (if requested) Does that sound reasonable?

Tan I have a mindee here for 3 hours and give her lunch included in 3xhourly rate.

TBH I'm not really happy with this as this child could eat me out of house and home, but I agreed this with the parent at the beginning and now I'm honouring our agreement.

I think a lot of minding is live and learn, next time I have anyone for around 3 or 4 hours I'll charge extra for food.

You have to decide what you are happy with and stick too it!

BTW hourly rate is £2.75!!!

I'd just put the rate up to £3 and include food. Sorry if "what's another plate" seemed churlish. I just find if I am catering for more than 3 people I get quantities wrong and I always have leftovers. I'd rather pay a flat rate rather than mess about with 50p here and there. eg 3 hours charge a tenner with lunch thrown in in.