parents in the way they eat. Ruth Thomson visited to find out how.
This year's Nursery World Food Award went to Snapdragons' Keynsham nursery, near Bath. For chef, Raquel Kneeves, it was her second NW award, having won this category in 2012 while chef at Snapdragons Weston.
Keynsham's hands-on approach means learning about where food comes from, how it grows and how to cook is woven into daily practice, and as a key member of the team, Raquel is able to influence - and inspire - practitioners, parents and children about eating well.
Also involved in the quest to deliver ever better food - and food education - to both children and their families in Snapdragons' eight nurseries is operations manager, Mary Llewellin.
RT: Raquel, tell me about your background and aims at Snapdragons?
RK: I am passionate about good food and want to pass on everything that I've learned to staff, families and the next generation of children.
I grew up in the Philippines, where we farmed our own vegetables and I started to cook with my grandmother at the age of ten. Then at school, from the age of 11, we would grow our own vegetables and every day, small groups of us would cook from scratch for the teachers and head teacher.
Once in the UK, I began working in a Thai restaurant and begged the owner to let me help in the kitchen. My cooking career started when someone fell sick and I had to step in. I went on to do my NVQ Level 3 then trained as a patisserie chef.
Now at Snapdragons, I've adjusted to cooking without salt, substituting ingredients for children with allergies or particular medical conditions and sharing my love of incorporating more vegetables into dishes.
RT: How do you inform parents about eating well?
RK: Parents know me and see me as part of the team, so they sometimes pull me over at social evenings or in the day to ask for recipes or advice on food for their children, or themselves.
ML: Our menu displays for parents include useful information, such as what is seasonal; our website features a healthy eating section; and our five-minute 'snapshot' video of the week's events in nursery sometimes includes a food activity.
We also organise regular and one-off events and activities that give parents the chance to try tasty, nutritious food. At parents' evenings, Raquel prepares a sample menu. About four times a year, we have takeaway evenings, with money raised going to a local hospice. It's a great chance to offer dishes from different cultures, including Indian, Chinese and Thai.
We have two annual events - Chillfest and Winter Wonderland - for families from all our nurseries. This year, the Chillfest theme was Brazil, to tie in with the World Cup.
As a one-off, after Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines, Raquel and I raised money for victims by getting sponsorship to sleep under tarpaulins in the nursery grounds. To raise awareness even more, we cooked a traditional Filipino chicken and rice soup and invited our families to join us for supper.
Next year, we're going to be one of the screening venues for the Bath Film Festival, so it will be another great opportunity to show families and the wider community what quality nursery food can be like.
RT: What are some of the ways in which you influence staff attitudes to healthy living?
RK: As with the children, I want to introduce them to good food and new flavours and to educate them about healthy eating. Some of the staff had never tried fish before working here but now they are happy to eat it.
They learn from me through cooking sessions with the children and growing our own veg. Now they are at a point where they can use their initiative and be creative in their choices when cooking with the children.
RT: How do you educate children about food and eating well?
ML: The menus are displayed in each room and the children often join Raquel in the kitchen for cooking activities. Where possible, she involves them in the process of preparing proper meals, such as shelling peas. She's even let them help her mince meat and vegetables for home-made burgers.
Staff cook regularly with the children in the rooms, and Raquel often gets involved, which brings an added level of expertise to the sessions, such as how to descale, clean and fillet a fish. Her passion for food is transmitted to the children, so when they see her in the garden, they often run over to ask what she's doing and always want to get involved. Even our youngest play their part in growing and harvesting our fruit and vegetables.
Children are introduced to a wide variety of flavours from an early age and try foods from other cultures. So, for example, they made sushi with home-grown vegetables for visiting Japanese students.
We also have one-off events and always try to involve the parents. On one occasion, we hired a Gruffalo outfit for a week, and Raquel and I devised a Gruffalo menu, rushed round all the nurseries demonstrating how to cook these dishes, then created recipe booklets for the chidren to take home. The menu included Scrambled Snake (noodles and vegetables) and Owl Icecream (frozen yoghurt and blueberries).
RT: What are your plans for developing food education and quality?
ML: We plan to convert the coach house within the nursery grounds into a cookery school. It will be used for cooking sessions to educate children, staff and parents, for family social occasions and, hopefully, to offer training within the community, for example, to young mums in challenging circumstances.
We are also raising standards further in our nurseries by training our own catering staff. For the past year, Raquel has been mentoring an apprentice, Carey (Mottram), and we hope that once qualified, he can move on to another of our nurseries to share his skills. We've already recruited another apprentice.
RK I want Carey to achieve high, restaurant, standards and to help pass on that expertise to our other nurseries. He came to us having tried Level 2 at college which he didn't enjoy, but here, he's really stuck with it. He knows I'm demanding, and I tell him he's lucky to have somebody like me to teach him, but he knows too that I believe in him and that I'm really proud of what he's achieved.
Ingredients- 250g strong white bread flour
- 250g strong wholemeal flour
- 7g sachet fast acting yeast
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 250-300ml lukewarm water
- 1 tablespoon mixed herbs
- 2 cooked beetroot, diced
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