Google Search: Kindergarten Meals

After spending a weekend with some of our friends in Ohio that have a two year old daughter and a baby boy on the way I wanted to know more about what kinds of food the little ones get during the day at a day care. Our friends had a weekly menu posted on the refrigerator from a day care that they felt was healthy and a good guide to follow on the weekends. As I looked through it I noticed that there was almost no protein at all on the menu and got curious on how other menus looks.

I punched in the search words: kindergarten and meals and the first page that came up was a place saying that they buy all their food fresh and that the meals are prepared by a nutrition chef. Great! I thought, this must be good…

My disappointment came fast… here is an example:

Breakfast 9.00 am
Raisins, Crackers, Cornflakes, Rice Crispies
Water and Juice

Lunch 11.45 am
Fish fingers with mixed veggies and Mashed Potatoes
Crumble and Ice Cream
Water

Snack 3.30 pm
Vegetable Broth with Bread and Butter
Banana Cake and Apple
Water and Juice

Snack 5.00 pm
Cookie
Water

Lets start with the breakfast – High Fructose raisins, high carb crackers (all crackers are basically high carb), Cornflakes with ton of sugar, rice crispies air puffed carbs and they get to drink a sugary drink as juice… The kids are going to be all high on sugar for about 2 hours and then they are going to get tired and hungry, this breakfast is horrifying.

Lunch – not so bad. At least they are getting some protein in the fish; unfortunately it is probably deep fried with some trans fats. Potatoes are ok, hopefully the mashing is done with real butter and heavy cream, but it doesn’t say. Ice cream… maybe once a week would be ok.

Snack – a veggie broth; I really hope they made it them selves, but the possibilities are that it is a finished broth filled with unnatural ingredients. And they serve another dessert, what?!?

Snack number two consists of a sugary cookie… do I need to say more?

These kids are going to grow up learning to feed off of carbs and sugars and slowly decrease their metabolism and start to store fat from all the extra sugar they get every day. We need to start teaching our kids early that limited amounts of carbs is the way to go or they will grow up just like you and I – thinking that whole wheat bread and pasta is completely ok to eat and that fruit and raisins is “healthy candy”.

This is my menu I would feed the kids if I ever had a day care:

Breakfast
Hard boiled egg, carrot, rolled up ham and cheese, milk

Snack
Greek Yogurt with flax seeds and crushed blueberries, water

Lunch
Grilled chicken with avocado and sweet potatoes pure, raw sweet peas, milk or water

Snack
Tuna salad and veggies with cheese dip, water

What day care would you want to pick your kid up from?