Meals

[Merlot]

I currently provide breakfast, lunch and tea. However, I'm finding pleasing the kids very frustrating and time consuming. I have a special dietary requirement for a 1 year old with an allergy, a 10 month old on a certain stage of lumps with baby food and requiring baby milk etc, a vegan and fussy 3 year olds. The after schoolers are even worse. I'm considering requesting parents to send a packed lunch and just do tea time meals for after 4.30 stays which would only be 3 nights per week.

What do you do for your parents and mindees? I try to offer a good service but to be honest it's wearing me down! I'm sick of food going in the bin and have yet to complete my allergen chart (which makes me lose the will to live! ) I charge £1.50 for the babies and £2 for over 2yrs upwards and offer breakfast and snacks for free. However, I'm finding that parents (despite their moaning about paying) can't be @rsed to make a packed lunch but leave the onus on me to provide a beautiful, nutritious and healthy meal when they know full well how fussy the little darlings are! These are probably the parents than moan about paying me but will happily pay the school £2.15 per day when they start full time there.

Sorry, need a rant and some advice would be great. Anyone done the allergens chart?

[lollipop kid]

I currently provide breakfast, lunch and tea. However, I'm finding pleasing the kids very frustrating and time consuming. I have a special dietary requirement for a 1 year old with an allergy, a 10 month old on a certain stage of lumps with baby food and requiring baby milk etc, a vegan and fussy 3 year olds. The after schoolers are even worse. I'm considering requesting parents to send a packed lunch and just do tea time meals for after 4.30 stays which would only be 3 nights per week.

What do you do for your parents and mindees? I try to offer a good service but to be honest it's wearing me down! I'm sick of food going in the bin and have yet to complete my allergen chart (which makes me lose the will to live! ) I charge £1.50 for the babies and £2 for over 2yrs upwards and offer breakfast and snacks for free. However, I'm finding that parents (despite their moaning about paying) can't be @rsed to make a packed lunch but leave the onus on me to provide a beautiful, nutritious and healthy meal when they know full well how fussy the little darlings are! These are probably the parents than moan about paying me but will happily pay the school £2.15 per day when they start full time there.

Sorry, need a rant and some advice would be great. Anyone done the allergens chart?

I've done a detailed response to your other post about Allergens. You don't actually have to do an allergens chart.

Nor do you have to provide food - packed lunches would be fine (but you might want to give the parents a guide as to what to include or not to include - otherwise, you might see lots of Dairylea sandwiches, Peanut butter sandwiches (which some of your other mindees may be allergic to?), crisps, chocolate, sweets, Fruit Shoot/luminous orange drinks, mouldy bread and fruit, out-of-date yoghurts... the list is endless. I've seen some belters in my time, which I why I opted to supply food at no extra charge. The benefit of this is that should the parents opt for packed lunches at some point, then you still get paid the same amount. Just look out for packed lunch envy/wars and have separate tables perhaps for those eating your food and those eating packed lunches to avoid this.)

I have a few dishes (really simple ones) that I've found all of my mindees will eat. The favourites are little cheese and tomato pizzas; pasta & pesto; fish fingers with potato waffles and garden peas; humous and dips; toasted bagel and cream cheese etc. (I have a vegetarian who is also very fussy - luckily he is allowed fish fingers! Even his mum struggles with food for him. )

PS: I don't supply breakfast as the children all arrive at different times. I ask for children to be fed before they arrive instead.

Good luck.

L

[Merlot]

Thanks LK I've seen your other post and have responded. I have some parents who send in a packed lunch now as they don't want to pay and it's a real pain. This was the parent that sent me raw ingredients to be cooked as part of a packed lunch! Unbelievable!

[lollipop kid]

Thanks LK I've seen your other post and have responded. I have some parents who send in a packed lunch now as they don't want to pay and it's a real pain. This was the parent that sent me raw ingredients to be cooked as part of a packed lunch! Unbelievable!

Wow - I've had that as well. I politely kept it in the fridge and sent it back to the parent, and recorded that I'd fed their child what the others were having.

My contract asks for a packed lunch in summer months that does not require heating, as we may not be anywhere at lunchtime with cooking facilities. Sometimes, you've just got to spell it out to them.



L

[TinyTinker]

I used to provide all meals and snacks for free - but realised that my low hourly rate, did not really cover this!- so rather than put my hourly rate up, I started charging for meals. Giving the option for packed lunch. I have a set menu 4 weekly rotated, this is what is on offer, no options - they get what they get. Since charging, most parents have opted for packed lunches, and to have a snack instead of evening meal to keep them going until they feed them at home.

I did get a few un-healthy packed lunches (one day I added up the sugar content of all the food in one girls lunchbox and it totalled 29grams), but got a hand out from the local children's centre about packed lunches and gave it out with newsletter, and they improved

I have only one lo who has our lunches most days and she does look on enviously at the others lunches, wishing she was eating out of packets and boxes etc....but I don't have the facility to seat them separately. At school the hot dinner children are allowed to sit next to packed lunch kids, so figured they must get used to this kind of arrangement anyway, lol.

I charge 30p breakfast, 80p lunch, £1.10 evening meal or 30p for a keep you going snack.