Discussion Board

Does anyone have experience in dealing with snacks during pre-school. It seems every pre-school has a SAD snack and they don't cater to those of us who don't want our kids to eat junk that often. They also don't take kids with allergies or allow alternative snacks.

Is it the USDA Food Program that regulates the preschool's food program?

I was just talking about this on another thread. I am in Washington and have worked in the child care industry for my entire career (30 years). If the provider wants to get paid for the meals and snacks and they are on the program, they are required to "offer" the children that snack or meal, but they are NEVER allowed to insist they eat it. We always had children bring in alternative snacks and lunches. We still had to offer what we had available and they could take it and would often throw it away, but that is just how the program is run. And all of the meals and snacks were SAD.

In all honesty, I would take my child somewhere else if possible. The food program allows for children with "allergies" which a doctor will almost always sign off on. They are required to provide alternate items like rice or soy milk for a dairy allergy, but they do not allow the preschools to recognize parental preferences at all without a doctor note that states something is an allergy.

Not allowing kids with allergies might be an issue of liability or just not wanting to deal with the inconvenience that they feel it would bring to the teachers and classrooms. It is hard to police food in a child care center. Things like peanut butter sandwiches are cheap and you often have staff that are young and inexperienced. Even really great teachers can lose track of an allergy when they are feeding a huge group of kids.

It is a very flawed program.

So we found a pre-school that will accommodate our way of eating, it just took a little looking.