CM Club - Food provision query - opinions please

[nomoreamover]

For some time now I have been making a considerable loss on meals provision. I currently charge £1.25 per child for supper and include lunch and snacks in my daily rate.

I also have discovered from another thread that there are now tax issues with providing food also.

Thats not to mention the fact that I have a child recently diagnosed with a dairy and soya allergy and another child who refuses to eat anything in sauce and another who frankly is the fussiest little mite I have ever met! I am getting a little annoyed now at the amount of wastage the children create of an evening meal and I end up doing my weekly shop with mindees in mind and not my own family!

My questions therefore are these:

1. Should I cancel food provision entirely and if so how much notice should I give that I am doing so?
2. Should I continue to provide food but increase my charges? Again how much notice required?
3. Is it reasonable to ask parents to provide their own snacks - the after schoolies in particular eat me out of house and home! Again - what notice?

Thanks for your input guys - I love all my clients and wouldn't want to upset them but this is getting ridiculous!

All my mindees parents provide snacks, packed lunches and dinners. All I have to do is heat them up.

As I look after different cultures it would be too much of a pain to do all different meals when I have my own 3DC and DP to cook for too.

It works out much better and all the children are happy with foods that you know they will eat.

Maybe give a couple of weeks notice, Im sure the parents wont mind (they are used to cooking for them anyway).

Just remind parents though to make sure packed lunches are healthy, as I recently had the problem of a mum putting at least 6/7 pieces of junk food in . I had to have words with her which was a bit awkward .

At the end of the day, you are running a business and you must do what is more convenient for you. And at the moment you seem to be doing the opposite.
Good luck.

i also found that cooking for the children in the evening became difficult and wasteful. So I talked to all my families and agreed that it would be sandwiches or pasta or beans on toast type of meals. Making roasts and cottage pie etc was a huge waste because the children would not eat it.

As for snacks, i keep it cheap and cheerful. Fruit, maybe a baked treat, carrots or veg pieces, yoghurt, chocolate, biscuits, cheese. but i use the cheaper varieties. I just cannot afford the "posher" varities!

and i think it may get to the point where parents have to provide their own. not too sure of that yet. providing food also means I am in the kitchen a lot of the time. i do breakfast for 2, lunch for 3 and supper for 2 or 3 (including my DS)

Gets a bit much.

Must admit, I do the main cooked meal at lunch time, as found that most mindees didn't eat so well at tea time, (I dont actually have any fr tea at the moment) but when I did it was beans on toast affair at tea time.

i provide all food.

I don't charge the parents at all, but put don on my expenses,

1.00 per breakfast
75p per snack
3.00 per cooked meal
1.00 per tea.

but I do earn a lot having no dependent children, so would have a huge tax bill if I didnt.

wow shoshe thats loads mor ethan I put on my tax bill!

thanks ladies for replying - interesting balance of opinion!

And yes coolj - i do seem to be doing the opposite of what suits me!

I pay dd's childminder £4.30 per hour which includes food.

Sandwiches/crackers/cheese/fruit at lunchtime and a cooked meal in the evening.

Just to put the POV of a parent here - I would probably look for another CM if mine stopped providing meals. I'm a single parent and work full time and providing home cooked meals was really important to me when I chose my CM.

My DS is only 2 thought and with his CM full time - I think it's different if you're doing school runs. If you're not charging for after school snacks then I think you should be

I raised my hourly rate and all meals, nappies, etc are included in the rate (easier on the admin). I do not provide breakfast, I do morning snack, cooked lunch, afternoon snack and occasional teas - which are normally something like sandwiches. I look after children with dietary requirements - no dairy, no pork, organic only, no refined sugar, etc, but we work it out somehow (the bank manager knows all about it).

See I'd be happy doing it all but not for £3.50 an hour you know? I'm making a loss on meals which eats into my overall profit (which already is minimal!)

spicemonster - thank you for your input - tbh your response is what I expected from most parents and i know its what I will get from mine

Not sure but I think on ICP course, they said lunch should be provided (should or must?). I know what you mean though, I have 2 who eat so much fruit and it costs a fortune!

I'm currently charging £2.00 per day for meals and I put the rest through my books so I don't think I'm making a loss although I'm not earning enough to pay tax so I guess I am prob losing out somewhere but I think when parents aren't collecting until after 5.30 then by the time they have got home and cooked something it's time for mindee's to go to bed so I wouldn't refuse to cook for them as I have my own small children to feed anyway making a bit more if not the end of the world and it makes the parents lives easier, I admit I tire of the constant cleaning up as 5 children for dinner each night does create quite a bit of mess but I think that's part of the job and perhaps I'll get a cleaner to help me out once a week so at least it's not so bad, maybe even stop doing cooked meals on a friday so that once the cleaner has been I can keep on top of the mess my own family makes ready for monday morning instead of having to spend my weekend cleaning up.

I'm re-doing my policies now and may send a questionaire out to see what their feelings on this would be.

Having said that, OP, I would hate to think my CM was making a loss! I love her and so does my DS. I'd put your prices up. While it might annoy some people, surely no one wants someone they work with to make a loss? It's in my best interests for my CM to carry on providing a service she's happy with and I'd hope it'd be the same for most parents

I'm with spicemonster, it's vital to me that my CM does meals, but I would absolutely expect to pay an amount that covered her costs - no way should you be making a loss OP! The recent Minding your Business course that most CM's seem to have been on has encouraged them to think about charging appropriately - her fees have gone up as have meals charges. I currently pay £4ph plus £3 per day for meals for my eldest and provide all meals for my youngest. Frankly I can't wait to get her to do his meals paid for as well, as it's a royal pain doing it myself

I'm also happy to provide snacks at my cost because occasionally I don't like the quality of what she sometimes offers - ie high sugar yoghurts, ordinary adult crisps, drinks with sweetners etc. I've come to terms with cheaper meat and sausages in her meals because if they're going to get a hot meal them it's difficult to insist she uses different proteins for him compared to the others. Yes we do things differently at home but the relationship with a CM is by definition one of compromise.

In short, sit down and work out what you need to charge, and then give a months notice of the increased fees. You must not run yourself into the ground by not charging enough. You are a professional entitled to charge proper fees. Parents will just have to deal with it

new info aleart!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i have been cminding for 7yrs now and have just got my friend onboard, during her workshops she was advised (by the tax people) to charge £1.50 per snack and £3 for a cooked meal per child agaisnt your books (not to parents)

this to me seems alot but i have re-done all my books accordly so now i put down:

£1.50 for breakfast (this inc cereal, fruit juice and toast)

£1.50 for morning and afternoon snack together (as i only give fruit/toast)

£3 for a cooked meal or £1.50 for a snack dinner

As a parent, I would probably change CM's if cooked meals were no longer provided, but I wouldn't change if she just said she was going to have to charge a bit more to provide them.

My CM doesn't have any children with allergies though, and my DS eats what is cooked or doesn't have anything, which I am fine with. I must say, I might be a bit miffed if mine was a good eater and I thought I was "subsidising" pickier children (unreasonable I know, but...!)

I don't use a CM, I use a nursery. But part of the reason I chose them is because of the type of meals they offer - they are outsourced to a catering firm, and are imaginative, and healthy (although they do get a 'pudding' after lunch and tea!) - I get to see the weekly menus on the information board.

My DS is a fussy, pain in the tush when it comes to food - but moreso at home than at nursery. I have found that he is more willing to try different foods at nursery because he sees the other children eating that food. For me that is, quite frankly, a godsend.

Why not limit - to a degree - how many snacks the children get, especially the after school ones. If they need extra, than I don't think parents would mind providing a little extra in the form of snacks for the children. Most of older ones will be having a proper meal at home shortly after leaving you anyway, wouldn't they?

I provide a 4 weekly menu, which I change now and then. It also has a list of the sorts of snacks available. I'm sure that if parents see what you're feeding children, they'll realise and be happy to pay more