Blog
Nutrition at Kindred Nurseries: Your Questions Answered
We know just how important food and nutrition are for parents when choosing the right nursery for your child. After carefully listening to your feedback, we have created this blog to answer your most frequent questions about our menus and how we support healthy eating in our nurseries every day.
Where can I find your current nursery menus?
We want to make our menus as accessible and transparent as possible, so you can confidently plan meals at home alongside those your child is enjoying at nursery.
You can easily view and download our current menus on our Nutrition Page.
We offer three weekly rotating menus for each season - Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter - carefully designed to provide delicious and varied meals that meet EYFS nutrition guidance.
Want to bring a taste of nursery home? You can also download Our Little Book of Recipes, filled with our favourite dishes from current and past menus plus some seasonal extras!
What's new about your Spring/Summer menus?
Our Spring/Summer menus are even more transparent and parent-friendly than before.
Each element of every meal is now clearly colour-coded, so you can easily see the different food groups included:
- Orange: Starchy carbohydrates
- Green: Fruit and vegetables
- Red: Protein
- Blue: Dairy and dairy alternatives
We've also introduced simple allergen coding, supporting safer allergy awareness.
Who reviews and approves your menu?
We are proudly partnered with Early Start Nutrition, a team of expert, registered nutritionists.
Every menu we create goes through a thorough review process with Early Start Nutrition:
- Our Chef's Club comes together to collaboratively to plan recipes and create a first draft of the menus.
- Early Start Nutrition reviews it against the latest EYFS nutrition guidance. They provide detailed feedback and recommendations to ensure all elements of our menu are nutritious and compliant.
- We refine the menu until it reaches the highest standard. Once approved, our menus receive official accreditation from Early Start Nutrition.
This expert accreditation helps give you confidence that every meal your child has at our nurseries is balanced and aligned with the best practice in childcare nutrition.
How do you teach children about healthy eating in your nurseries?
Developing healthy eating habits in early years starts with positive and engaging experiences.
We make learning about food fun through interactive, age-appropriate activities that help our children become familiar with different foods before they even appear on their plate:
- Sensory development: Our younger children explore real food through messy play, discovering different textures, colours, and smells.
- Role play: Our older children use real ingredients in their play which allows us to have engaging conversations about the food and what recipes we might use them in without the pressure to eat them.
- Independence: Our older children help to prepare snacks, set the table, and serve their own food, which also helps to build their confidence and prepare them for the transition to school.
- Gardening enrichment: Many of our nurseries have vegetable patches where our children grow their own produce, helping them to understand where their food comes from and the importance of sustainability.
How do you keep your menus varied and exciting?
Variety is key to a balanced diet, and one of the ways we achieve this is through our Chef's Club.
This collaborative group brings together chefs from across our nurseries pooling their diverse backgrounds and expertise to design menus that are nutritious, vaired and packed full of flavour.
We recently spoke with our Chef, Fábio Barbato from Kindred Islington to find out what he enjoys most about being part of the Chef's Club:
How does your background influence the recipes you help to develop?
"I remember being in the kitchen with my Dad. In a Portuguese family, the kitchen is the heart of the home. I still cook using what my Dad taught me, so in my recipes there's always a little bit of his knowledge and tradition."
How do the preferences of the children at Kindred Islington influence the recipes you develop?
"I have children with egg and dairy allergies, so when I create recipes, I always try to make their meals as similar as possible to their friends'. It's important to me that no child feels left out."
What is your favourite thing about being part of the Chef's Club?
"Being part of the Chef's Club has really built my confidence. I get to connect with other chefs who understand the day-to-day challenges we face in our kitchens. We share ideas, support each other, and have a lot of fun along the way and we've all become great friends!"
How do you introduce children to new foods?
We know that introducing new foods to children takes time with research suggesting a child may need to see a new food 10-15 times before they are ready to try it.
We create a relaxed, pressure-free environment at mealtimes that focuses on gentle exposure. Children are encouraged to:
- Explore different foods through touch, smell, and conversation.
- Try new foods at their own pace.
- Listen to their natural hunger cues.
For one pot dishes, we may serve ingredients separately at first to help our children build familiarity and confidence before trying it all together.
How do you use parent feedback to help improve your menus?
Parent feedback is incredibly important to use and directly shapes how we develop our menus.
Recent improvements we have made based on feedback include:
- Reducing salt by preparing more elements from scratch, including homemade sauces and gravies.
- Increasing our breakfast variety with more options such as overnight oats.
- Ensuring the cereals we do offer are low in sugar, aligned with EYFS guidelines, and served alongside fruit or alternatives like wholemeal toast.
These changes help us to provide meals that are both nutritious and enjoyable for our children.
What role do staff members play at mealtimes?
Our teams play a crucial role in creating safe and positive mealtime experiences for our children.
Every member of staff receives mandatory training including Level 2 Food Hygiene and Allergy Awareness training which is refreshed regularly, ensuring they are fully equipped to manage safe preparation, handling, and serving of food.
They follow strict procedures to keep every child safe, including clear allergy management systems such as colour-coded placemats and bowls.
Beyond safety, our staff will sit with the children at mealtimes, helping to make them a social and enjoyable experience. Sometimes, staff may even join the children in trying new meals, helping to encourage and model healthy eating habits.
Supporting Healthy Eating Every Day
At Kindred Nurseries, we're committed to building confidence, encouraging independence, and creating positive lifelong habits through nutritious and tasty food.
We're proud to provide meals that are balanced, varied, and thoughtfully prepared, while creating an environment where every child can explore and enjoy food at their own pace.
Ready to taste the Kindred Difference?
If our approach to healthy eating and expert accredited menus sound right for your family, we invite you to take the next step:
We look forward to partnering with you on your child's nursery journey.