Ready meals at nursery - am I being a bit precious?

[Ktay]

Today, for the third time in the space of a month, I have dropped DD1 off at nursery and then passed the nursery 'cook' in town later on laden down with Iceland carrier bags full of something that later appears on the nursery lunch menu. (The meals in question have been a 'family-size' £2 steak pie, family-size lasagnes and today I glimpsed a curry label. I know Indian food is likely to be on the menu today as they are celebrating an Indian festival.)

I might be jumping to conclusions here (perhaps the nursery menu has given the cook inspiration for her dinner but after a busy day cooking lovely meals from fresh ingredients for all the children she cba to do the same when she gets home??) but I suspect not.

Am I being a bit precious about this or should I have a word with the nursery manager? I've subsequently gone into Iceland on each occasion (I fear I am developing an unhealthy preoccupation with the issue tbh) to check the nutritional info on the relevant packets and in terms of salt etc they don't seem to be that bad. And nursery have never pretended that food is one of their strong points. But the fees are pretty steep and I really think they should be allocating a larger proportion of their income on good food, or at least plan their purchasing better (the cook appears to be buying food on a daily basis rather than in bulk and gets fruit from the corner shop, for example.)

NB I am of the 'everything in moderation' persuasion as far as DD1's diet goes, I'm not suggesting they switch to a macrobiotic menu or anything!

I wouldn't be happy tbh especially if my kids were full time, my dc nursery makes fresh everyday from scratch. I have a vision of you hiding round corners in iceland stalking her!

maybe just double check their food policy, ask for a review?

You're not that wide of the mark . Must find something more meaningful to do with my maternity leave!

Thanks for the suggestion, may well give that a go. When I first looked round (18 months ago when thru opened) I asked about food and they were pretty evasive but they have since launched a new menu with some fanfare

I would not be happy either. I assume it is saving them time and money but not you. I would want freshly made food...

That is outrageous at a nursery !!

Thanks everyone. OK, so I'm not overreacting in that case and need to grow a pair and raise it with the powers that be (not keen on confrontation...). It's particularly unfortunate as DD1 is one of those children who tends to eat really well at nursery, so it's a good opportunity to get a few days' worth of decent meals down her. (I had thought this was the 'peer pressure'/social element but maybe it's the diet of MSG and other processed crap they've doubtless been feeding her that's made everything go down so well??)

is there a parents group at your nursery? you could approach the rep. though i would ask for a meeting with the boss. Also if you have time, look round some of the comparative nurseries in the area and see what they are feeding the children, this gives you something to base your expectations on, also you have then done the ground work in case you want to change nursery. good luck!

No parents group to my knowledge - didn't realise such things existed at nurseries! It is tempting to revisit some of the others as I will probably be moving DD in September anyway (when preschool funding kicks in). If nothing else it will keep me out of Iceland

ps and they did indeed have curry for lunch today

poor poor poor. ask the manager or cook if you pass the kitchen? a simple dd love's the ...... could i have the recipe so i can make it at home? will clear it up in your mind?

Well, I did a few laps of the block past Iceland today on pretext of getting dd2 to have a nap but no sign of nursery cook. I like your idea dribbleface but am feeling a bit bolder today. I think I'll just tell the manager what I've observed and ask them what proportion of lunches this accounts for, sound like a plan?

Maybe flag up to her that the School Food Trust has put out voluntary guidelines for food and nutrition in early years settings.

If they are serving ready meals that is pretty poor. :(

Oh great, thanks for the School Food Trust info. After readysteady suggested researching other local nurseries' offerings I stidied a few of their websites and one of them mentioned some national guidelines but I couldn't see anything relevant on the Ofsted site and wasn't sure where else to look. (And all the websites I looked at, both local independents and branches of two national chains, said they cooked their food from fresh.)

That's crazy - I feel much better about the "flexibility" of what we feed DD at home knowing that she gets a varied, homecooked diet at nursery.

I hope you get it resolved.

This is bad. The quality of the food, possible additives, salt content.

I'm not one to shout ofsted at all, but I'd be v unhappy about this

Same here breatheslowly! And DD2 is just 5wo so have been even more reliant on the 'flexible' options of late.

Didn't get a chance to raise it on Friday; will take it up with them when DD1 is back in later in the week.

I suppose it's still possible I've got wrong end of stick but Lord knows what she was doing with several huge frozen pies otherwise.

I think the fruit from the corner shop is ok. In my LOs day nursery (I assume you are talking about a private/paid for daycare here not state funded) the good was all freshly made (you had to go through the kitchen to get to one of the rooms). It sometimes lacked protein but was pretty healthy with occasional treats. I'd not be happy about pies...

Speak to the owner manager.

Fruit from corner shop was only an issue I think because it tends to be expensive and OP was rightly saying that they could get it cheaper elsewhere and so have more of the budget to spend on food in general.

That's right Bertie - also if she was more organised/had more support in being organised in obtaining supplies in bulk she'd have more time to focus on prep.

It is indeed a private day nursery - in a leafy suburb where, if you'll permit me a generalisation, you'd expect the clientele to be a bit particular about this sort of thing.