Food and nutrition are important and we know that a healthy balanced diet is essential to your child’s growth and development. Every day is an opportunity for us to satisfy your child’s appetite with delicious and nutritious meals and snacks, designed with their needs in mind, with a menu planned to broaden their food experiences.
Monkey Puzzle Hartley Wintney uses a local catering company called Slice of Pie which provides the children’s meals at lunch time. Slice of Pie provides interesting, nutritious and varied food on a daily basis, each meal based upon their seasonal menus, on a four week rolling basis.
Our in-house Nursery Cook prepares snacks mid-morning and mid-afternoon, and cooks a healthy, balanced meal for the children at tea time. This gives us the autonomy to build our tea menu based on what we know the children love to eat, and to further reinforce the fact that we incorporate the views of the children into our menu planning, each week we have a ‘children’s choice’ tea, favourites suggested by our older children or by the parents of our younger children.
View our sample menu below:
We always provide fresh, balanced nursery meals to the children at each mealtime with a variety of snacks throughout the week, including at least one fresh fruit snack daily. Everything is prepared to an exceptionally high standard and our kitchen has a 5 star food hygiene rating.
We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So, to get our children off to flying start, we offer a variety of non-sugared cereals and wholemeal toast, bagels or crumpets – enough to fill up their tummies and keep a smile on their faces until snack time.
At lunch and teatime, we like to serve hot*, balanced meals.
Throughout the day, and at meal times, we encourage the children to drink fresh water. At breaks and breakfast we offer milk.
If your child has any specific dietary requirements, or you want further information about our nursery meals, simply get in touch.
*In summer we may introduce a selection of cold tea options to accommodate the warmer weather, and frozen yogurt lollies at snack time.
Babies’ (Hedgehogs) Nutrition
At this age, nutrition for your child and support for you go hand in hand as we work together to find your child’s feeding rhythm throughout their daytime with us, and their night-time and earlier mornings with you. We support both breastfeeding and formula feed with bottle feeds at nursery, delivered with comfort and care for their feeding and winding habits. When your babies are ready to experience solid food we will complement your efforts at home, working in partnership with you as your child experiences new tastes and textures.
Our Hedgehogs are given plenty of time to explore their food at mealtimes, with their hands and their mouths, encouraging them to really engage with each food they are introduced to, developing their hand-eye coordination, and making plenty of mess.
Toddlers’ (Squirrels) Nutrition
Your child’s food experiences are so important and in this age group, they really develop and secure many of their preferences. We balance the opportunity to try new foods with the regularity and reliability of foods they already know and love, continuing to praise them for their food adventures, and giving them an abundance of time to enjoy these.
We delight in helping to create good habits, supporting mealtimes with learning and understanding about how foods help them and their bodies, helping them to make great food choices for life.
Our Squirrels are encouraged to move away from eating mostly with their hands, learning how to use and control their cutlery.
Preschoolers’ (Owls) Nutrition
Fuelling some of the most energetic beings on the planet is fun, and we love the challenge! A healthy balanced diet is essential to your child’s growth and development and at this stage, making sure they have the nutrition to match their desire to master the world.
At this age, your child will continue to develop cutlery control, being introduced to using a knife as well as a fork and spoon and learning to cut their food themselves. Children will talk about healthy and less healthy foods, and learn the importance of a balanced diet.
