Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/enhancing-access-to-healthy-affordable-food-in-ece-settings/5023520/
Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern, with approximately 23% of children ages two to five nationally overweight or obese. Millions of children are served by early care and education programs, and these children are in the classroom, center, or family child care home up to ten hours per day and eat two meals and snacks a day while in care. Thus, the ECE setting is an optimal place of intervention to help support the healthy development of young children. Improving the quality of meals and snacks provided to children in ECE programs can also be attractive to parents and result in healthier young children.
Many different food service practices are in place in ECE programs nationwide. While some programs may have parents prepare and bring all of their children’s food for the day, other ECE programs have on-site kitchens where they prepare daily meals and snacks. Other programs may have full-service catering in-house (e.g. as part of a larger organization), they may purchase catered meals through a vendor, or offer some combination of food service arrangements. Regardless of a program’s current food service structure, there is a significant opportunity to rethink the types of foods served to children, including appropriate ...