Organix Campaign for better regulation of nursery food

[Washersaurus]

Cut and pasted from email I received...

Over 600,000 children in England and Wales go to nursery for up to ten hours a day. In many cases, nurseries are providing the majority of their daily food during the working week.

It may surprise you to learn that when it comes to the food served in nurseries in England and Wales, this is the current situation:

-No compulsory training for nursery staff serving food

-No clear nutritional standards

-No agency to monitor the quality of food provided

-No Government department giving a lead or promoting good practice

-No Government funding available to help nurseries improve provision

We think this is unacceptable and we want changes to be made urgently. We are calling on the Government to put in place nutritional standards that will cover all nurseries, guaranteeing better food in nurseries now. You can help us by signing the petition on the website backing our campaign.

Is this Organix the food company?

Yes I am on their mailing list

I cook for my chidren and don't adhere to any of the above....

Sorry, am a bit at such a thing fron the producers of baby food.

I cook for my children too the majority of the time, but sadly many children don't have that luxury and are routinely fed crap at nursery.

Personally, I think it is good that they are trying to do something about it, I think as far as food companies go, Organix are OK - they also campaigned for the removal of nasty additives in childrens food.

Stop sounding so blardy angelic .... I just thought someone might be interested.

didn't mean to have a go......it's just that when my DCs were at nursery I took a huge interest in what the menus were and how they were prepared etc, and assumed everyone else did the same. maybe I was wrong.....

about time imo

my friend's DCs get fed rich tea biscuits for breakfast

One of the reasons my go to a childminder is because of the food that I saw at nursery.

heard a radio programme on it saying it is completely unregulated and so pilot research showed that staff where doing things like boiling veg for an hour to make it soft!

that would be the same company who label baby food suitable from 4 months, rather than 6.. who when i complained 2 years ago or so, sent me back a big waffly load of rubbish IMO.

do you think organix want to provide lots of lovely jarred and prepared foods for nurseries. or doing this from the goodness of their own commercial hearts.

the nursery DS went to provided home cooked meals, proper food, DS often came home stinking of garlic, and you could have breakfast or lunch with your child if you were able .
i too am about a food company spearheading this campaign

maybe i am too cynical

problem is a lot of people just don;t know how to cook, they don;t cook at home and don;t necessarily know what is good nutrition for children

education and regulation is important

YOu are not cynical Lulu, I love the food at DD's nursery so does she and why does it have to be a food provider that is doing this?

Oh come on, you critics; have you even looked at the campaign or their company ethics?

Didn't Organix start an awards thing for nurseries who provide local homecooked meals etc last year? I honestly don't believe this is about encouraging nurseries to feed babies their jars (I don't think they even sell jarred baby food do they - thought it was just the fruit pot things and snacks?)

The nursery my DC's attend advertise organic homemade meals, but often seem to serve spag hoops, beefburgers and sausage rolls etc (which to be fair, could be homemade I suppose). I just breathe a sigh of relief that DS1 only has 2 meals a week there and that everything else he eats is homemade - some children are there all week.

So do you believe that nurseries look after our children out of the goodness of their commercial hearts then...or do you reckon they are out to make as much profit as they can (by cutting food costs possibly)?

after my dealings with organix re their labelling of their food products, i am cynical

I think the labelling thing is a different issue tbh. All babyfood manufacturers market their products like that - maybe there should be more regulation?

Anyway, I only posted about the petition in case it was of interest to someone on here. I'll scuttle back under my rock now and not bother in future.

sorry , did not mean to scare you off !

yes, there needs to be a lot more regulation

i am sure that lots of people will think this is really a good thing, i have had my fingers burnt with organix though

Hello everyone - full disclaimer: when not lurking on Mumsnet, I do actually work for Organix so I obviously have a vested interest in this thread! Without wanting to derail the discussion, I thought it might be interesting/useful if I gave you a few details about this campaign.

Firstly, it's not just an Organix campaign - it's something we're doing with the Soil Association. We do a lot of campaign work with the Soil Association - one of the first things we were both involved in was Food For Life, which was launched in 2003 and was about better meals in schools.

The Food for Life campaign has been one of the factors that has helped improve primary and secondary school food over the last five years or so - which is great, obviously. But we felt that the food served in nurseries had been left behind and should be looked at.

I realise that people might be cynical about a food company being involved this campaign - and I understand why - but the emphasis is very much on encouraging and helping nurseries to produce their own healthy, freshly cooked meals on site, (and putting pressure on the Government to try to make sure this happens), as well as getting children involved in cooking etc, rather than a rallying cry for nursery workers to rush out and buy Organix Rice Cakes in bulk.

There will be a full report about nursery food available on the site already linked to from next Tuesday onwards, if people are interested in this issue - but will stop waving my Organix banner now and retreat to the 'What name do you secretly love but would never use for your child' thread...

Thanks!

I support Organix's campaign.

When my 2 and a half year old started pre-school, he was introduced to junk-food at snack-time because fruit involved peeling and chopping.

I was mocked and painted as earnest/holier than thou/a complainer when I said that I was disappointed my child was being introduced to junk (including boiled sweets) in an educational setting. We were asked to bring in biscuits for the snack. I called the government department to ask about the law, and was told that the new controls on school food do not apply to nursery.

This pre-school has now changed and does now offer wholemeal toast at snack-time which is terrific.

I think Organix is fabulous. If their commercial interests coincide with a better future for our children, then good for them. They are not pretending there's nothing in it for them.

The goodie bars are absolute genuis because they are packaged to look like junk so you can offer them to your child and other people's children without fear of being bullied and mocked (which is basically what happens in my town if you offer fruit when others are offering slices of cake).

It is so easy to control the junk intake of nursery age children and so so much harder to do it later. Why don't we start with the easy age-groups first rather than letting them get into bad habits which school then has to work to reverse.

Keep up the good work Organix. And no, I have no relationship with them.

Hi I have to declare an interest, i am an freelance nutritionist and I work with Organix and contributed to the Nursery Food Report and am also mother of a 2 year old who goes to nursery. I do think a bit of healthy cynism is needed in this day and age when it comes to companies, but Organix has always had a strong ethical policy and if you look at the report (if you have time of course), it advocates that nurseries provide home cooked, healthy food for children...there is no hidden agenda. It's a scandal that the government has introduced strong nutrition standards for primary and secondary schools but very little, if not vague guidance for nurseries, This is the most important age for children they are developing their eating habits for life and also are growing and developing quickly so need to eat well. Please sign up in support of the campaign (www.nurseryfood.org), we need government to introduce the same level of regulation that it has for older children for the youngest, most vulnerable children.

agree with Lulu's pooints

BUT agree regulation is sorely needed

I am very lucky - DS's nursery provides home cooked, fresh food every day and this was one of the things that i liked most about it

the children also cook at nursery and learn about food which is a huge part of the whole process too

it is a business there to make a profit dresing it up as holier than thou campaigning with 2 posts from employees

I'm with lulu on this one

this campaign will tick a alot of "corporate social reposnibility boxes"

Organix people - will your compnay be supplying or do you currently supply nurseries with your products?

While I am usually as cynical as can be, I do think this report makes interesting (if depressing) reading and I think it's worth a read. It's been reported on the BBC (which is where I heard about it).

I find it really depressing that food regulations for nurseries are so lax when they're so draconian at schools.

Surely that should be what's worth debating rather than squabbling over corporate conspiracy?

It's like Jamie Oliver though, isn't it? Obviously his programmes benefit him enormously in money and publicity, but they ALSO have had a very positive effect on school food and awareness of healthy eating for children.

Can't we just be glad that there's potentially a win win situation here? Organix gets good publicity for putting their resources and funding into this campaign, well done them, and potentially nursery food improves across the country, good for all our children.

Where's the downside? If Organix were peddling sugary snacks, sausage rolls and fruit shoots, I could understand people shunning the campagn, but refusing to support a good cause because a corporate organisation is involved seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face, imo.

Please please don't ignore this campaign - unless of course you are already running your own non-corporate campaign on the issue!

Everyone has an agenda, including Organix. So do parent activists, so do churches, so does everyone! If the regulation is achieved, and children get better food (and nurseries in some more deprived areas could do with the government support I suspect) what does it matter who started it?

We had this debate around the time of Band Aid and Live Aid. I thought we'd got over it by now.

RubyShivers - no, Organix don't supply nurseries with products

Just wondered if this ever got anywhere? I am glad it's to encourage home-cooking rather than push Organix products because I think a lot of them still have stuff in them I would rather avoid.

When I make my own biscuits I use 100% wholegrain flour because I don't like to use refined stuff but Organix use a mix of wholegrain and white flour. All there cereal bars have dried fruit in which I don't like DS to have cos bad teeth runs in our family. All there 12 month plus crisps have salt in. There's enough sodium found naturally in fruit, veg etc without adding it unnecessarily.

The things I do get for DS are the jumbo carrot sticks (for some reason these don't have salt but the thin ones do), sweetcorn rings, tomato slices and rice cakes. Out of a big range that's not much that I consider to be healthy enough for DS to eat.