I recently received an email from a family child care
provider friend who asked me to develop a Food Brought from Home Policy. She had a parent who had requested that her
child be served food brought from home rather than from the provider's planned
menu. She agreed to the parent's
request, but had no idea what the parent actually intended. When the parent showed up at her door with a bag of groceries and asked her
to prepare, day-by-day, what the child requested, she was, to say the least, a
bit shocked. So, she has already re-written
her parent handbook to make sure this doesn't happen again, but also wanted a
very specific policy addressing food brought from home.
Other than the obvious problem of being a child care
professional and not a short-order cook, and simply not having time to prepare
individual meals for children, what are the problems with food brought from
home? The first issue is that some local
licensing agencies simply do not allow any food from outside the child care
program. If this is your agency's
policy, your concerns are over; it's a non-issue. However, if it is possible for you to accept
food from the outside, you need to determine if you will choose to accept it
and, if so, under what conditions.
Meals and snacks that you serve in your program must meet
food safety requirements and USDA nutrition guidelines. Managing that through your own kitchen or
catering service is one thing, but trying to manage what a parent is bringing
into the program is a totally different ballpark. I would highly suggest, because this is such
a difficult aspect to manage, you make sure that there is truly a need for the
parent to provide the food for their child.
"My child only eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches"
doesn't really cut it; this child can learn to appreciate the foods you serve
in your program. Providing that there is
a true need (allergy, religious requirement, etc.), you have to make sure the
parent understands the requirement that you have to provide safe, nutritious
food to their child while in your program, regardless of who provides that
food. Most parents aren't going to think
of food safety regulations and USDA guidelines when planning food for their own
child.
While most parents understand the need for food safety,
there will be some who are unaware of the need for washing hands before
preparing food, ensuring that food is maintained at a safe temperature prior to
serving...and all of those other requirements that we have learned over our
years of working with children. Many
parents, even those who do a great job in providing healthy meals and snacks
for their children at home, are unaware of USDA nutrition guidelines,
especially in relation to which components need to be included in meals and
which ones in snacks. Helping them to
understand these basic requirements will be necessary before they start
bringing food into your program for their children.
As a program director, you need to have a plan in place for
what to do when a child consistently brings in food that does not meet these
requirements. You have to be able to
supplement the meal or snack to make sure that nutrition guidelines are being
met and you also need to know how to get the parent the help he or she needs
to supply appropriate food for their
child. You will also need to make sure
that your staff understands that food supplied specifically for one child can
never be shared with another child in the program.
Your Food Brought from Home Policy , shared with parents when
they enroll their children in your program, will help address all of these
issues, along with how you handle food for special celebrations (birthdays,
etc.).
Misty
Image courtesy of: www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net
No comments:
Post a Comment