Nursery World Awards 2009: Initiatives - Nursery Food Award
WINNER: RED HEN DAY NURSERY, LOUTH, LINCOLNSHIRE
A healthy diet and educating children about food and its production and preparation was an important consideration when David and Jane Harrison opened Red Hen Day Nursery five years ago.
Initially, Jane cooked all the meals but then other aspects of the nursery began to take up too much time; she now employs two cooks, as well as her daughter, Lucy, who has completed a cookery course at Edinburgh School of Food and Wine.
Jane says, 'Red Hen believes that children benefit from knowing where their food comes from if they are to build the skills necessary to make an informed choice about a healthy diet in the future. To this end, the setting makes full use of its location on the proprietors' working farm, to which the children have regular supervised access to learn about food, farming and nature. This also has the added benefit of providing a rich source of learning opportunities in the Early Years Foundation Stage.'
The children have a good understanding of how things grow and where food comes from because of their experience of growing vegetables in the nursery garden.
They understand that meat comes from animals because the nursery has reared its own pigs. They even understand the growth cycle of wheat and why it is grown because they regularly walk around the field adjacent to the nursery.
David has shown them how to grind wheat into flour. They then learn how to make bread from the flour.
In the nursery, the children are encouraged to help with snacks, and prepare meals such as fishcakes and meatballs, as they are more likely to eat food they have helped to make. They also help to make smoothies.
Red Hen even extends its passion for food to the parents, and runs parent-and-child cookery mornings where the parents prepare lunch and then everyone sits down to eat it together.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
- London Early Years Foundation, London
London Early Years Foundation, formerly Westminster Children's Society, sees healthy eating as an extension of the group's commitment to best practice. The chefs plan the menus with the children, and once a week the children help them to cook a range of healthy recipes. It also holds regular cooking workshops for parents.
- Woodlands Nursery, Altrincham, Cheshire
Much of the food served at the nursery is sourced locally, and the children grow their own herbs and vegetables. Menus are rotated so children are given a variety of foods reflecting a diversity of cultures. A qualified Sure Start dietician regularly checks the menus.
FINALISTS
- Eureka! Nursery, Halifax
- Forbes Nursery, Edinburgh
- Kids 1st Day Nurseries, Gateshead
- Willow Cottage Nurseries, Oxford
CRITERION
Open to early years settings promoting healthy eating.
