Healthy eating in the daycare and nutrition on a curriculum: how should you implement this?

Healthy eating in the daycare and nutrition on a curriculum: how should you implement this??

February 18, 2016 – 8:36 a.m.

Do not shift responsibility onto daycare!

Now it is time for our children to get down to business, also like fried or scalloped: Federal Food Minister Christian Schmidt has ignited the second stage of his double strike strategy in terms of healthy child nutrition. Stage one was an appeal to parents and other people in charge: actively ensures that balanced and delicious food ends up on the children’s plates during the midday care. Stage two has the target group directly in mind: "The small multiplication table of nutrition must have a permanent place in the curriculum".

By Ursula Willimsky

Should already be in kindergarten "eat" become a topic. We think that’s great, you can’t start dealing with this topic early enough. In the concrete implementation at home or outside the enterprise could also be a bit exhausting.

One hardly dares to imagine the first meeting of the quickly formed parents’ initiative, which wants to critically examine the new educational content: too many carbohydrates. Too much meat. Meat at all! Not enough soy products. Too much tofu. You should generally avoid industrial sugar. A few gummy bears didn’t hurt me either! My child only eats fish when it’s breaded. To much fat! Nuts are also recommended, which is not possible. Strawberries don’t work either. I don’t let them dictate what I cook. So in the evening I just don’t have the nerve to do something big in the kitchen. So at home we attach great importance to healthy eating and harmonious meals together. But definitely not with gluten. Gluten is okay, but please point out the dangers of lactose, and so on and so on.

If you want, you can alternatively imagine a parents’ evening where the quality and content of future optimized kiga or school meals are discussed. Little will likely change in the content. Finding a common denominator between the poles ‘Vegan’ and ‘Paleo’ should be difficult. But don’t do anything about it? Can’t be a solution either.

Experts (= committed mothers) have been calling for a rethinking of food during lunch care for a long time. Some had her initial experience of this when, unannounced, she spiked into the styrofoam boxes at lunchtime, in which the food is often delivered in the morning. There it then bobs around for a long time until it is finally distributed. Mind you: This does not apply to every day care center or every school. On the other hand, not every child has the privilege of visiting a facility that a cook can afford.

What can healthy food cost? The prices fluctuate considerably, the Ministry of Food also says. In 2014, a nationwide study by the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences determined an average price of 2.83 euros for primary schools, 3.05 euros for secondary schools and 2.42 euros for daycare centers. As I said: average. The price depends, among other things, on how high the quality of the food is, how large the proportion of organic products is – and also how much personnel costs are involved.

Minister Schmidt has a great website for anyone who sees himself motivated to take action after the inspection visit or in principle put leave: macht-dampf.de. There is a lot of information, from basic nutritional tips to sample letters or instructions on how best to found a cafeteria group. But the campaign "Makes steam! For good Eating in daycare and school" and the "National Quality Center School Catering" are just the beginning. "Now the focus is on nutrition education", says Schmidt. He wants to make healthy food increasingly a subject of instruction in daycare centers, schools and "welcome classes". Free education and media packages are intended to introduce students to the topic in a playful and practical way.

It is all beautiful and good and certainly forward-looking. But hand on heart: a little playful introduction could / should in a different environment occur. Namely at home.

Because in addition to the official initiatives, there is also the good old role model function. Or the educational mandate that not only the teacher and kindergarten aunt have, but also the parents. They decide what is available for breakfast and dinner and which break bread the child gets. If mom is lying in front of the TV with the pizza on a regular basis and supplements this main meal mainly with sweets, it should be difficult for any ministerial campaign, no matter how well-intentioned and large-scale, to make the fun of eating tasty for children.

Healthy eating in the daycare and nutrition on a curriculum: how should you implement this??

Do not shift responsibility onto daycare!

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