Meal Times at Devon Nurseries

At Devon Nurseries, we are proud to serve healthy, nutritious and unique meals daily to the children. Meal Times at Devon Nurseries can offer children the opportunity to take risks and try adventurous foods; determine their likes and dislikes, and for our older children, learn about different foods and nutrients.

All of our Devon Nurseries work on a Winter Menu and a Summer Menu, and as we say hello to June, we say hello to hot meals such as lemon chicken with veg & rice, vegan curry with veg and an all-time favourite butternut squash lasagne! At Devon Nurseries, we cater for all dietary requirements. From dairy allergies to vegan, whatever foods your child’s needs are, we cater for!

Trying New Foods

Our menus are varied and exciting. Sometimes new foods can be scary, and some things on the menu spark the parents' “my child would never eat that!” but when they try and like it, they love it! Especially when all the other children, sat around the table together, are trying too!
We should always be encouraging our children to try things they haven’t before. Go bold with your choices: children’s taste buds are changing all the time so variety is key.

Portion Sizes

We want to help children build a healthy relationship with food. We recognise that children have high energy and nutrient requirements but only small stomachs, so they need little and often. Therefore, meals are timed so that the children eat regularly with breakfast at approximately 8am; Morning snack 10am; Lunch at 11:30am/12 noon; Afternoon snack at 2pm; and Tea at 3:30/4pm.

Our portion sizes start off small to help the children understand hunger if they finish it all and would like some more. This also helps reduce the amount of waste we have in the nursery! Another great teaching for the children.

As an example, for a breakfast of pancakes and bananas, portions are as follows:

• Our younger rooms will have ¾ of a pancake with 3 banana slices
• Our middle-aged rooms will have a whole pancake with 4 banana slices
• Our older rooms will have a pancake and a ½ with 5 banana slices

Each child will be offered extra food if they finish their plate and are indicating they are still hungry.

If you would like to see more photos of our portion sizes, check out our nursery Facebook pages at ABC, Acorns, Adventurers, Discovery and Tic Tocs.

We also have some extra tips on Meal times and Table Manners. Check it out here!