Child Care administrators and staff that plan and provide meals and snacks to preschool age children are setting the course for their nutritional well-being. Studies have show a definitive link between nutrition and learning, and that child care centers can be a key to life-long success. However, there are many challenges in providing nutritional meals and getting a preschooler to choose these healthy foods. Below is a list of resources to help meet these challenges and overcome them.                

Healthful Meals and Snacks for Childcare Facilities and Preschools:

NEW! RECIPE for Growing Healthy Children: Child Care Culinary Workshop - Indiana Department of Education; Purdue Unversity Extension. These training resources (including training videos, pdf files, and other materials) were developed as part of a USDA Team Nutrition Training Grant to train child care food service staff on planning and preparing meals and snacks that comply with the Dietary Guidelines and My Pyramid.

Making It Balance and Kickin' It Up! A Cycle Menu for Montana Child Care - revised for Illinois Child Care. Menu planning is an important step in preparing balanced meals and snacks. This 5 week menu cycle for breakfast, lunch, and one snack (with accompanying recipes) will help you serve cost effective, healthy meals that are easy to prepare and appealing to children.  The menu cycle and recipes are designed to meet the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005, and have been developed with suggestions from various Montana child care professionals, providers and nutritionists.

NFSMI's CARE Connection Lessons - Lessons based on best practices in the operation of child care centers and family day care homes participating in the CACFP.  Here you will find short grab-and-go lessons that you can deliver to staff in 10 minutes or less, easy lesson plans to deliver the lesson, family materials, fun activities to do with the children for nutrition education, and links to NFSMI's resources developed specifically for child care providers.

Create Healthy, Active Celebrations – This downloadable guide from the USDA Eat Smart Play Hard initiative is full of party planning ideas for educators and homes. The guide provides suggestions for food, age-appropriate games and activities, and party favors. It provides party themes and the menus to go with them. A phenomenal tool for fun, healthy celebrations.

Healthful Snacking - Tips for child-care facilities, preschools and parents about healthy snacking: What is a snack portion? How much time should be allotted for snack-time? Provided by Mealtime Memo for Childcare.

Healthy Snacks for Children -a list of healthy snack ideas from all the major food groups, including beverages.

Make it Quick and Easy Recipes - from the USDA Food and Nutrition Services, a great menu and recipe planning tool for in-home child care providers or parents.

Mealtime Memo Newsletter for Child Care - Includes a wide variety of topics related to nutrition and child care. It features menus, USDA Recipes for Child Care, and activities. Available in English and Spanish.

Menu Magic for Kids - A Menu Planning Guide for Child Care. This booklet provides information on the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Meal Pattern requirements, serving quality meals and snacks, and tips on menu planning and grocery shopping.

Child Care Providers Recipes and Menu Planning - This web resource provides recipes, resources, and information on planning and preparing nutritious meals and food safety for those participating in the USDA’s Child and Adult Care Food Program.

Child Care Recipes: Food for Health and Fun - Newly updated! - USDA resource of recipes for Child Care programs - consists of a booklet and 2 CD-ROMs. The booklet describes how to work with recipes, adjusting recipes, food safety information, and much more. The first CD contains the booklet text; tips for cooking, preparation, and storage; files of the recipes by name and number; “how to" instructions; food storage times, mini-posters on hand washing and thermometer usage. The second CD contains the Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs.

For more resources, including food service related resources, please visit our Healthy School Meals page