There has never been more evidence or conversation about the importance of a healthy diet for young children. With childhood obesity now affecting nearly a third of the UK’s two- to seven-year-olds and children being admitted to hospital in alarming numbers for multiple tooth extractions, we are clearly facing an uphill battle in turning the evidence and conversation into positive change.
One area where the authorities have a certain element of influence over children’s diets is in the provision of school meals, and the last government appointed Henry Dimbleby, the founder of the upmarket fast-food restaurant Leon, to investigate the challenges faced by schools in their efforts to provide good nutrition. This led to the formation of the School Food Plan, which has done great work providing support resources and celebrating school successes in raising the standard of school meals around the country.
GOVERNMENT COMMITMENT?
Another government initiative was the introduction of Universal Infant Free School Meals for all five- to seven-year-olds, because this is seen to be the best way to encourage the uptake of school meals and thereby improve the diets of young children.
Sadly, this logic does not seem to extend to nurseries, even though Ofsted’s own Common Inspection Framework puts the onus on providers to show how they promote healthy eating and healthy lifestyles. It is such a shame that when it comes to early years, the official approach to encouraging healthy eating falls short of financial support.
With the funding gap that we are experiencing in delivering the 15 funded hours at present and the introduction of the 30-hour entitlement looming, nursery budgets are being squeezed ever tighter. No doubt this will lead to nurseries cutting the cost of the food they provide and an increase in under-fives relying on packed lunches as running a kitchen becomes prohibitively expensive.
Given that the first five years of life are developmentally so crucial, this seems shortsighted, especially as the architects of the School Food Plan say that ‘only 1 per cent of packed lunches meet the nutritional standards that apply to school food’.
CELEBRATING CHEFS
The involvement of high-profile chefs in school meals has been key to upping the profile of children’s nutrition. With big names like Jamie Oliver and Dimbleby on the case, it is plain that children’s food has become a lot more glamorous and a bit of a campaigning issue.
Last year, Nicole Pisani, who was head chef at Yottam Ottolenghi’s celebrated London restaurant Nopi, decided to turn her hand to school dinners and started a new job at a primary school in Hackney. The lucky children there are now tucking into meals featuring a whole array of new flavours thanks to the passion of Ms Pisani and the foresight of the school’s head teacher.
A knowledgeable and passionate chef is a wonderful asset to a nursery too, and can offer so much more to the nursery environment than just the food they cook: think cookery lessons for children, vegetable-growing, educating parents through social events and educating staff.
Luckily there are awards that celebrate the wonderful work nursery chefs do including, of course, Nursery World’s Nursery Food Award. The BBC Food and Farming Awards Cook of the Year 2015 was Jo Ingleby from Redcliffe Nursery School in Bristol. She too hails from a restaurant background, having been a chef at several top eateries including Bath’s gourmet vegetarian restaurant Demuths.
Our own chef Raquel Kneeves is the current Soil Association Food for Life Early Years Catering Mark Champion – the Food for Life scheme is another force for good within the industry, championing the great work of chefs and the importance of healthy, sustainable food.
NEW TALENT
This attention on children’s food and the people who cook it should, we hope, encourage a new wave of young chefs to consider a career in nurseries. The hours are certainly a lot kinder than those in the restaurant world.
We run a chef apprenticeship scheme at Snapdragons, and Carey Mottram from our Keynsham nursery was our first kitchen apprentice. He is now qualified to NVQ Level 3 after working with us while attending college on day release.
He did initially report that the other students were scathing about his job in a nursery, seeing restaurant work as more exciting. He has been able to share our awards successes and the kudos of working in a Soil Association Gold Catering Mark setting, which certainly helps to change attitudes.
HEART OF THE NURSERY
As with at home, the kitchen in the nursery is the hub, warm and welcoming with delicious smells and domestic sounds flowing through the building, providing an echo of home life that creates a secure and comforting environment. A knowledgeable nursery chef can be such a force for good and as much a part of the children’s education as the nursery practitioners. Practical cooking lessons featuring real food are essential for teaching children about healthy choices, even better if they have helped to grow the food, so if a chef can be involved in the garden, this is a logical extension of the role.
Sometimes it is not just the children who need help with their food knowledge, and our chefs have a role to play in spreading healthy eating messages with staff and parents too. We have had great success with social events and with cookery sessions involving parents.
And, of course, there is Ofsted. Evidence of growing, cooking and partnership with parents, as well as all the physical and communication and language skills that are encompassed by preparing, serving, eating, understanding and sharing food, are wonderful evidence that we are giving children the best start in life.
MORE INFORMATION
http://whatworkswell.schoolfoodplan.com
https://www.flickr.com/photos/soilassociation/sets/72157652444732923
http://email-deliverysystem.com/interface/external_view_email.php?A9126065766738194165123406393210
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