MEALS AND NUTRITION

Parents of children at the under age 1 center must provide all of the food their child requires for the day. Open Door provides a morning and afternoon snack for the other children. Parents are required to send a nutritious lunch every day.

The Open Door has a strict nutritious food only policy. Children learn the best if their nutritional needs are being met. We do not allow foods which only provide "empty' calories such as treats, candy, cookies, gum, and most types of chips or drinks which contain sugar. The reason for our policy is to avoid tempting children to fill up on empty calories thereby depriving themselves of the healthy food needed to develop strong bodies and minds. If any of these types of foods are sent to school, the staff will not serve them to your child.

If you are uncertain what kinds of food are appropriate, please talk to your child's teacher or the site director. We want to work with you to ensure that your child is getting the protein, vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates she/he needs to remain healthy. The Department of Protective and Regulatory Services requires that a child in care for more than 6 hours be provided with at least 1/2 of their daily food requirements. They also require that your child receive a daily serving of a Vitamin C rich food, such as orange juice, cantaloupe, melon, broccoli, tomatoes, strawberries, citrus fruit, baked potato, cauliflower, cabbage or greens. Each child needs from 1/4 to 1/3 cup of one of these foods each day.

Please remember that the teachers are helping many children eat their meals. Foods should be sent as ready to eat as possible (i.e. already peeled cut into bite-sized pieces if necessary). Microwaves are available to warm food, but again remember that the teachers do not have the time to heat every child's lunch every day. Please talk with your child's teacher about foods that need refrigeration - each center has a different storage capacity.

Please remember to label everything. Please use plastic containers to avoid the danger of broken bottles. The teachers try their best to return everyone's containers, but please understand that our first priority is to care for the children, and getting each container back to its proper lunch box is a secondary concern.
We encourage breast feeding mothers to come feed their babies at school as much as they are able. If you need to breast feed at the end of the day try to arrive early enough so that you and your child will be able to leave by 5:30.