Say hello to carrots, capsicum and cauliflower! From October 15th to 21st 2023, it’s time to pay tribute to vegetables and the important role they can play in our health and wellbeing.
Nutrition Week is all about encouraging Australians to learn about making healthy food and lifestyle choices to improve their overall health.
As an early education and childcare provider, we play a big part in shaping many children's eating and drinking habits. At Grow Early Education, we take this responsibility seriously as developing healthy habits in childhood also leads to healthier decisions, actions and habits throughout life!
A child’s physical and mental development depends largely on the nutrition they receive during their formative years. Proper nutrition is essential for children’s health, development, and wellbeing. It helps them grow, learn, and build strong immune systems. A balanced diet that includes a variety of nutrient-rich foods is the key to optimal health for children.
At Grow Early Education it is our priority to work with families to support and encourage healthy eating for children in our care. We provide nutritious and super delicious meals every day for your little one to enjoy and this is included in our daily fee.
Our centre menus, prepared by professionally qualified Chefs are age and development appropriate and include a wide variety of nutritious food of different tastes and textures consistent with the Australian Dietary Guidelines.
We also use seasonal and local produce and ensure that our menus provide more than half a child’s daily nutrition requirements!
At Grow Early Education, we recognise the important role we have in promoting healthy eating and good food choices to the children in our care. We proactively do this by using the following strategies:
- Engaging children in activities based around creating healthy menus and cooking experiences with our Chefs. This includes providing cooking classes as an extra-curricular activity, which is included as part of our daily fee.
- Promoting mealtime routines and foods from different cultures, to expand children’s experience with different foods.
- Engaging in conversations about nutritious food and making healthy food choices with children during mealtimes.
- Modelling healthy eating practices and leading by example during mealtimes.
- Making mealtimes happy, social and pleasant occasions, where conversations around healthy food choices and nutrition are encouraged.
- Promoting ‘Paddock to Plate’ by growing a range of delicious vegetables, herbs and fruits in our gardens, which the children help to grow and harvest to use in our centre meals. This is part of our gardening lessons as an extra-curricular activity included in our daily fee.
Wondering how you can get involved?
Check out Nutrition Australia’s ‘Try for 5’ website at www.tryfor5.org.au.
‘Try for 5’ is an annual awareness campaign by Nutrition Australia during National Nutrition Week in October that celebrates vegetables and the important role they can play in our health and wellbeing.
If you find it hard to get your little one to eat their vegetables, our hot tip is to head to the ‘Recipes’ section of this website. You are guaranteed to find one that suits your family’s tastebuds!
If you would like to know more about our approach to health and nutrition at our Grow centres, visit the Health & Wellbeing page of our website or call our team on 1300 934 769.
‘Good nutrition is necessary for the active growth and development that takes place in early childhood. Good eating habits and a well-balanced diet support children’s health and wellbeing, and minimise the risk of illness. Eating habits developed in the early years are likely to have a lifelong influence.’
(Get up and Grow: Healthy Eating and Physical activity for Early childhood p 20. 2013 Dept. of Health. Aust. Government)
