SUBJECT: Meal Service

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE: Meal times provide opportunities for a child to develop appropriate eating patterns, social behavior, and positive attitudes toward healthy foods.

1. The Food Service Coordinator and staff at each center ensure that meal times contribute to the child’s health and social development.

1. The Food Service Coordinator, Classroom Assistant/Kitchen Aides, and Menu Committee develop meal plans that broaden a child’s food experiences. (Refer to previous section: Nutrition Services, E 3-4.)
2. Teachers ensure that food is not used as punishment or reward, and that each child is encouraged but not forced to eat or taste the food.
   1. Teaching staff or a volunteer will sit at each table with the children to model appropriate eating behavior for the development of positive attitudes toward healthy foods.
3. Teachers monitor timing of meals and ensure that each child is given sufficient time to eat.

1. Breakfast and lunch periods are ½ hour each. Snack periods are 20 minutes. Children who have not finished eating in those time periods are always allowed to do so.

4. Staff and children eat together family-style and share the same menu to the extent possible.

1. Family-style is defined as all sitting at the same tables eating at the same time, sharing the same menu (to the extent possible).
2. Staff and volunteers model serving themselves from dishes and encourage children to do the same, allowing each child to make food choices based on their individual appetites and preferences.

5. The Health Services Manager and Food Service Coordinator ensure that medically based diets or other dietary requirements are accommodated. (See previous: Nutrition Services, A.5.) Staff and management safeguard confidentiality on reasons for special diets.
6. The Child Development Specialist and Health Services Manager and direct service staff develop opportunities for children to participate in food related activities such as:

• Preparing simple meals or snacks
• Field trips to orchards, farms, and ranches
• Field trips to stores and plants where food is prepared and/or sold