guidelines for snacks served in preschools

[indigosky]

Has anyone seen good guidelines for snacks served by preschools? I'm looking for some examples I can pass along to a local school that's currently doing a dismal job when it comes to snacks.

This school is the leading candidate for DD to attend when she's 3 next year -- it's a wonderful school in so many ways, but the major weakness that we can see is really junky snacks. We are friends with parents who have their kids in the school now and are concerned about this, so we're working with them to see if we can get the school to improve its approach to snacks.

The two things that would be most helpful would be:

1) Guidelines that have been adopted by other schools about healthy snacks. Ideally these would be more detailed than just "limit sugar" -- this school serves Golden Grahams and Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal and the director does not view these as sugary snacks! Also, do any schools actually agree not to provide snacks that use high fructose corn syrup, or am I asking too much? (Waffles with fake maple syrup -- i.e. HFCS -- was another snack served.)

2) A list of easy, healthy snack ideas that are served by preschools. I've done a lot of Googling, but most of the lists of snack ideas are for at-home parents. Making English muffin pizzas or celery with peanut butter and raisins is great at home, but take a lot more prep time than the healthy snacks I see being provided in other preschools (popcorn, apple slices, etc, which are quick to prepare for large numbers of kids).

Thanks!

[organicpapayamama]

I understand your concern and I am glad you are wanting to do something about it. I agree with you in serving healthier snacks/ foods. Im not a nutritionist but come on... cinnamon toast crunch?

The only place I can think of to start is that I am on WIC. WIC makes sure that you get nutritious foods. I think its a good starting point to perhaps get an idea of what is healthy and needed in a healthy diet. Im not sure if they go into detail about any sort of guidelines but here are some good links:

http://www.mass.gov/Eeohhs2/docs/dph/wic/food_list.pdf

http://www.mass.gov/Eeohhs2/docs/dph/wic/food_guide.pdf

I figure if its what is recommended by the state for WIC (pregnant women and kids up to 5) that its good enough for day cares and preschools. Hope this helps.

[marispel]

My daycare serves a few snacks that I think is crazy. Pop-tarts (non frosted), teddy grahams (this one isn't too bad, but still), chocolate pudding and JUICE. I questioned the director over the pop-tarts and juice and she said that the state requires them to serve so many fruits and veggies. Since the pop-tarts have fruit in them it counts...same thing for juice.

UGH!

[RunningMomTegan]

That WIC list is a good place to start. I HATE how much juice is served in daycares, but that list is generally sound guidance!

[organicpapayamama]

Originally Posted by marispel

My daycare serves a few snacks that I think is crazy. Pop-tarts (non frosted), teddy grahams (this one isn't too bad, but still), chocolate pudding and JUICE. I questioned the director over the pop-tarts and juice and she said that the state requires them to serve so many fruits and veggies. Since the pop-tarts have fruit in them it counts...same thing for juice.

UGH!

wow that just a pathetic excuse.... pop-tarts are to meet the FRUIT requirement? how about actually serving FRUIT??

[erratum]

Originally Posted by organicpapayamama

wow that just a pathetic excuse.... pop-tarts are to meet the FRUIT requirement? how about actually serving FRUIT??

that's like when Reagan classified Ketchup as a vegetable.

[AllyRae]

DS's school has some great snack guidlines. Each week, they have a different parent bring in the snacks and they say exactly what they want:

-2 bunches of organic fruit
-2 bunches of organic veggies (dip optional)
-1 baked carb
-1 pack of organic cheese (vegan or dairy)
-1 half gallon organic milk
-1 container organic yogurt (or other protein like a container of sunbutter with a box of baked crackers)

They said no sugary, fried, or artifically colored foods. They even go as far as to say that in the child's lunchbox, they can't bring juice that isn't 100% juice, no cakes/cookies/candy, and no prepackaged foods (except crackers or fruit bowls). And for birthdays, you have to bring in a healthier treat like muffins...nothing with frostings or anything.

I *love* the guidelines too!

[AllyRae]

I did want to add that the school is a nut free school, and because of allergies, they request that the majority of snacks be "single ingredient" snacks--hence the fruits and veggies. They also require the week's parent helper to prepare the snacks at home (cutting the watermelon, peeling the nectarines, etc.). It's a montessori school so the kids will make their own sunbutter & cracker snacks, etc.

[kittykat2481]

DS goes to a small Montessori school too, and on our snack week we were asked to bring stuff like "12 bananas, 1lb fresh strawberries, 1 dozen hard boiled eggs, 1 lb mozzerella cheese, goldfish crackers" etc - so not so bad. He was in daycare before and I was the only parent that packed his food because their snacks were like brownies, marshmallows, and cookies and the lunches were just horrible.

[newbie_mary]

Last year, the co-op preschool DS went to had these very sensible guidelines -- parents supplied the snacks each day, so when it was your turn, you were to bring a PROTEIN (cheese or egg mostly, sometimes yogurt, also sunbutter sometimes or hummus), a STARCH (pretzels or crackers or bagel, usually), and a FRUIT OR VEGGIE (apple slices, bananas, grapes cut in half, pear slices, strawberries, melon, or applesauce -- I guess I never brought any veggies, since I only listed fruit!) They had Brita pitchers for water (there was never another drink choice).