Snack Time

[Guest]

I supervise a charity run pre school and provide snack for the morning session, this includes breadsticks or crackers, toast etc. and also some fruit, I visited a friends pre-school recently (attached to a school) and they are given free fruit for all of their children each session, can anyone tell me if this is just for pre- schools or nurseries attached to schools or can anyone claim for free fruit ??

even though I have replied to things on the site this is my first time of doing this bit so i hope i've done it right!!

[Inge]

Only schools,

voluntary or private settings not eligible.

 

We ask parents to supply fruit for the snack by putting out a list when we need some, we supply toast etc. we always have a good supply.

 

Inge

Edited May 7, 2008 by Inge

[Guest]

Hi - we did provide bread sticks, crackers etc - now we only have fresh fruit and vegetables each day which are donated by parents. We encourage them to bring in one piece each day and reassure them if they have run out of apples, why not a carrot. This has been so very successful - children are tasting fruits & veg they may not have at home, and as we run a snack bar which is open for 2 hours each child can take the time to try new things.

 

Dot

[Guest]

Hi there

 

We chose not to have the free fruit as we could see that it would present problems as only one type of fruit is delivered per day. We want the children to be able to have some fruit which they know they will enjoy. All staff bring in a piece of fruit too as we all sit down to eat together.

 

All parents provide a piece of fruit, we get all sorts and we also sometimes have toast or biscuits, as well as eating our own cooking. We encourage children to try healthy things they are not used to.

[hali]

we are a pre school and ask parents to provide fruit and veg - always have plenty

[Guest]

thank you, i'm going to get parents involved in their child bringing a piece of fruit or veg per day, from what you all have said the parents must enjoy being involved in healthy eating for thier children, it would help our very small budget as well to do this!!

[dublinbay]

We are a pre-school in the grounds of a primary school although not a part of it.

We are on the free fruit scheme and recieve a variety of apples, oranges, pears, bananas and carrots.

Anything else we supply ourselves, such as, breadsticks, cheese, crackers, toast etc.

[Emmawill]

Dublin bay . How did you get onto the scheme? I am also a pre-school in the grounds of a school but not part of and i have just looked on the free fruit scheme and it says that stand alone preschools cannot join . Do I need to sweet talk the school!!!!!.

[Guest]

So how is it that a preschool on school premises - presumably independent from it - can register but others not on school premises can't? I guess it might be down to delivery but I don't really think that's fair. But then I personally believe we should allbe on the scheme. It can be a bit late by the time some children start school - I've had some 4 year olds at preschool who'd already decided they didn't like certain healthy foods. It seems much easier to encourage the younger ones to eat them.

 

The idea of asking the parents to contribute is great but unfortunately doesn't always work. It's too dependent on the parental group at the time, and they seem to vary so much from one year to the next. One year ours were brilliant, the next it was very patchy. So now we buy everything ourselves, although we do get donations e.g. when the apples & pears are cropping! We also grow some in our raised beds.

[Inge]

Not had a bad week yet .. we do top up first week of term and would do so if we did get a poor response, but we would keep it going as it really helps our budget and once parents get the idea they all seem to want to help. This week we have had 8 bags of apples, 4 bags of grapes, cheese, breadsticks, melon, 2 bags of bananas, carrots and raisins - we find that they all just want to bring something at the moment.

 

Inge

[Guest]

Dublin bay . How did you get onto the scheme? I am also a pre-school in the grounds of a school but not part of and i have just looked on the free fruit scheme and it says that stand alone preschools cannot join . Do I need to sweet talk the school!!!!!.

 

My eldest goes to a stand alone pre-school and whilst I'm not sure about the fruit, they do get free milk. Is that done on the same basis I wonder?

 

In reply to the op, the school I used to work in, in the days before free fruit we asked parents for £1 a week, that went towards snack. All 60 families paid each week with the odd exception. Any left over we put toward trips or special events like the Christmas party etc.

 

Fluff x

[dublinbay]

Dublin bay . How did you get onto the scheme? I am also a pre-school in the grounds of a school but not part of and i have just looked on the free fruit scheme and it says that stand alone preschools cannot join . Do I need to sweet talk the school!!!!!.

 

 

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply. Busy working on assignment for FD.

Anyway, I do believe my manager did have to sweet talk the primary school head (several years ago now) to be included in the free fruit scheme. It may be worth your while to have a chat to the primary school head and see if something can be arranged.

It does not cost the school anything so they may be prepared to help you out there. Likewise with the free milk scheme.

[Emmawill]

thanks for your reply. How do I get on the free milk scheme? sorry to ask a stupid question but anything free has got to be a bonus!!!!!!!

[Shiny]

There are contact details on here:

http://www.guide-information.org.uk/guidel...px?recid=G12771

[Deb]

Food for snack costs us around £500 a year that's with getting free milk from Cool Milk for Schools. We charge 15p per child per session for snack, which is added tranparently to the bill as would lunch club etc. I check at the end of the financial year that income for snack just about covers the costs.

[Emmawill]

thanks shiny for your reply will look into that