Guest Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 Hello again my FS Buddies I need to pick your brains again! Currently we provide children with a mid session snack consisting of fruit/vegetables breadsticks/crackers or similar and either milk or water to drink. We charge Parents £3 per session that their child attends per week for the half term so if a child attends 2 x a week they have a half termly bill of £6, if a child attends 5 x a week they have a half termly bill of £15. In September I am unsure if I can actually charge for snacks, especially for 'funded children'. Could parents be given a choice of whether or not they provide or pay for snacks. I would be interested to hear how other settings do theirs? Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 Hi debster - no I don't make any charge for snacks....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mukerjee1 Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 Hi, we don't charge for snacks either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dottyp Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 Two years ago we decided to ask parents to provide nutritional snacks for their children each day they attended. It has been hugely successful and have a variety of wonderful foods for the children to share and enjoy. We always provided fruit before and all parents were more than happy to contribute. It would be impossible to charge some and not others on our half termly invoices and feel it fairer to have one rule for all. dottyp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredbear Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 Hi we don't charge for snack either, maybe a good idea to speak to your local funding department to check if you are able to from September. within the new flexible funding. good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 WOW knew I could rely on you, what excellent fast replies. For those of you who do not charge for snacks, what do you provide the childen with and how do you fund this? Dottyp I completely agree that it should be 1 rule for all. Did you ever find that parents bought in fruit bars or anything other than fruit for their children to eat? Do you allow children to access this independantly or have a group session or rolling snack thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 We sit down together for snack in our key groups. We don't charge for snack. Children can have either toast or fruit and crackers, milk or water. I'm not sure you can charge for snack under the 15 hour free entitlement code of practice - as bridger says, probably best to check with your LA! Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 Hi debster.........I provide various fruit and veg e.g. a piece of apple, a piece of banana + 2 mini breadsticks or piece of carrot, piece of cucumber + 2 mimi breadsticks or raisins, strawberry, grapes, pear etc. - sure you get the picture....... I pay for this out of funds - NEG or fees for those not yet eligible for NEG Drinks are either water or milk - milk is supplied free of charge to us within the 'Cool Milk' scheme Hope that helps! Now I really need to get off this forum! and into a bath and then into my jammies! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacobite Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 Hi Debbie Our LA told me we could continue to charge for snack! Did you get to speak to anyone there? We charge £5 per child per half term. She Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valp59 Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 Our Code of Practice (Bucks) states: 'A healthy snack is regarded as part of the FFE and no charge must be made' We have a small pot for parents to put in voluntary contributions - we don't get much but every little helps!! Valp59 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panders Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 HI Debster, we don't charge for snacks, and under the terms of the funding don't think we are able to - but can ask for donations of fruit etc. I believe. We offer 3 different things, a dried fruit, typically either raisins, apricots or prunes (superhero raisins to the children), a fresh fruit such as cut up apple, or satsumas, grapes and a carb, such as rice cake, toast, breadsticks or occasionally a rich tea biscuit. They have snack pots and they help themselves, they may have a little of each, just one thing or nothing. We do keep a lazy eye on portion control especially for the younger children until the get used to our system. They may have water or milk or drink from their own flask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 Hi She Yes I did speak to our lady and she did tell me that we could charge for snack if parents were paying for other services!!!!! I took that to mean non funded children or funded ones that were accessing more than the 15 hrs entitlement. How we can fund snacks for funded children I have no idea, other than charging non funded children extra to cover this. It then leads to one rule for some and another for others which I don't agree with. Debbie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacobite Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 Hi She Yes I did speak to our lady and she did tell me that we could charge for snack if parents were paying for other services!!!!! I took that to mean non funded children or funded ones that were accessing more than the 15 hrs entitlement. How we can fund snacks for funded children I have no idea, other than charging non funded children extra to cover this. It then leads to one rule for some and another for others which I don't agree with. Debbie This winds me up when everyone gets a different story! We are in the same situation about funding the snacks but I feel its unfair that the non funded should subsidse the funded ones snack! I know of one local pre-school who ask their children to bring in their own snack and it seems to work well for them although they do get some weird and wonderful supposedly 'healthy' snacks,lol! This is in an area where money may not be plentiful for a lot of families. Feel another phone call or email to LA coming on! Thing is there is the free fruit scheme for foundation and Yr 1 children so why can't they extend that to pre-schools too then problem solved! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 I fund free snack by selling organic fruit and vegetable bags to parents. The profit made each week pays for the children's free snack and some parents enjoy the delivery service to Pre-school. You only need to sell a minimum of 10 bags a week to get free delivery and I have two of those as fruit bags for the children to enjoy. More info here http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dublinbay Posted July 2, 2010 Share Posted July 2, 2010 We don't charge for snack. We are in the grounds of a primary school and they share their free fruit with us. We are also able to receive the free milk scheme. All other snacks we pay for: plain biscuits, breadsticks, rice cakes, toast & crackers to name but a few. We also pick, wash, cook and eat our own vegetables from the garden. The potatoes have been particularly nice this week with a knob of marg/butter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redjayne Posted July 2, 2010 Share Posted July 2, 2010 we don't charge for snack either , it would be a logistical nightmare , but we claim for our free milk under the welfare scheme and actually for 50 + children twice a day (10 and 2) fruit, toast, crackers , veg and dips etc it costs about £30 in total for the week, just depends where you shop really ( Good old Aldi and Lidl ! ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynned55 Posted July 2, 2010 Share Posted July 2, 2010 We get free milk, schools get free fruit. If you cannot charge for uniforms then I'm pretty sure you cannot charge for snacks? It seems to me that the whole thing is now becoming so unfair to the non funded child, they seem to be subsidizing so much for the funded child through no fault of theirs or ours. It seems to me that if you get your fees paid, then a little bit to cover the 'extras' isn't that unfair. We have always provided snacks up until January of this year, when in an attempt to try and save some money we asked parents if they would like to donate an apple/orange/banana etc each day. We said that if each child donate just one piece of fruit each day, then it would be more then enough and make such a difference to our finances. It has, we rarely get fruit bought in on a Thurs/fri but this is fine as we have always had enough from earlier in the week and we have had some great stuff, even some cheese. I think we have had one day where we had just plain biscuits to give them. We leave a 'fruit' basket in our entrance foyer for donations and have always been very careful to ask for 'donations' and give out lots of thanks! As with everything, it is the same people that give every week, some people are very generous others have never given anything, but that is fine as well. You can usually tell what is on special at the local supermarkets by what fruit we have!! we are lucky, we live in a fairly affluent area but I think most people could afford 1/2 apples per week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 3, 2010 Share Posted July 3, 2010 We leave a pot out for donations. It's always the same parents who put in money which is a shame but it means we can fund healthy fruit and veg etc. Milk is free Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 3, 2010 Share Posted July 3, 2010 Hi, we don't charge for snacks either. I ask for a voluntary contribution towarsd the cost of a healthy snack! £2 a term Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 3, 2010 Share Posted July 3, 2010 We were told last week by somebody who came into our setting to discuss sff, that you cannot fund the snack out of funded money and yes you can charge for snack, although at present we dont Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buttercup Posted July 3, 2010 Share Posted July 3, 2010 from reading everyones replies i think if money is tight then it would be ok to ask for a voluntary contribution or ask for parents to provide snacks but maybe have some cereal bars or raisens etc on hand if people forget that they could buy. everyone should be claiming money back for milk. We ask parents to contribute to fruit that we cut up and share. other snacks eg, toast, breadsticks, ritz biscuits we provide. Buttercup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynned55 Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 You can ask parents or anything or any amount you wish as long as it is made clear to them that it is a 'voluntary' donation and not a 'fee' How many of us had/get letters from children's schools saying the trip/treat is costing xx but this is a voluntary donation, however if we do not get enough people donating then the trip/whatever will not go ahead. I've had a lot of those over the years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynned55 Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 You can ask parents or anything or any amount you wish as long as it is made clear to them that it is a 'voluntary' donation and not a 'fee' How many of us had/get letters from children's schools saying the trip/treat is costing xx but this is a voluntary donation, however if we do not get enough people donating then the trip/whatever will not go ahead. I've had a lot of those over the years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam2368 Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 We ask all families to provide something healthy to share and it works brilliantly. There are always those who won't provide (ironically those who's children eat the most) but it's not really an issue. It is lovely for the children to choose what to bring in then prep it for sharing, talk about where it came from etc especially this time of year with home grown produce. Our milk is from cool milk too. Very occasionally we get food from different cultures but this is really rare. Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredbear Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Sorry cupcake can you just confirm that snack cannot come out of funding allocation, and who told you this please? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredbear Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 Hi cupcake can you just confirm for me please that you were told you cannot include snack food and drink out of your funding allocation and in which area you are in many thanks. Has anyone else been told this ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
staceyc Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 Hi All First time posting but have been reading the site and pinching ideas! As a voluntary setting i decided to introduce a fruit chart for the parents. Basically its a poster format with a list of items across the top for example 8 bananas, i bag of apples etc Down the side is the week starting date. Every parent, grandparent etc has the opportunity to fill in their name and bring in the item at the beginning of the week. This keeps costs down as most parents do remember and then we often get bonus fruit from people that forgot to write their name on but wanted to contribute. If we are short then we use funds to buy it but this has very rarely happened. Highlight the fact that the less money you spend on fruit - the more money you have for resources etc. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rachelllps Posted July 18, 2010 Share Posted July 18, 2010 We get our milk through 'Cool milk' and as for snack we have had a parent rota for years. We normally ask for three items such as apple, sultanas and crackers and everyone provides snack at least once during each half term. We have never had any complaints over this. We give an indication of the number of children per session, we make it clear that if they can't provide what is on the list then we are happy for anything as long as it is healthy! Sometimes we don't get enough, sometime we get masses and we have had some more unusual things such as pepperami. But on the whole it works really well , the parents know what the children are having each day and the children enjoy asking 'who brought snack today?' and saying thank-you. Rachel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mps09 Posted July 18, 2010 Share Posted July 18, 2010 it's always difficult when you change what you have always done..... We ask for donations of fruit, crakcers, cheese, vegetables, etc. and nearly all parents bring in somehtings, some do it every day, some when they remember and then some bring in load at the beginning of term and nothing else. We've never run out and ahve a basket on view so the parents can see when it is low... We also ask families to provide one time each term such as table clearner, liquid soap, cornflour, food colouring, rice, pasta, flour, tissues, kitchen roll basically all those consumables we get through regularly, No one has every complained they just don't bring anything in! And we NEVER have to shop for these things. But we do make sure that parents know what resources we have bought. We want their money/fundraising to go directly to the children with resources not on boring items like washing up liquid!! Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollypiper Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 Hello again my FS Buddies I need to pick your brains again! Currently we provide children with a mid session snack consisting of fruit/vegetables breadsticks/crackers or similar and either milk or water to drink. We charge Parents £3 per session that their child attends per week for the half term so if a child attends 2 x a week they have a half termly bill of £6, if a child attends 5 x a week they have a half termly bill of £15. In September I am unsure if I can actually charge for snacks, especially for 'funded children'. Could parents be given a choice of whether or not they provide or pay for snacks. I would be interested to hear how other settings do theirs? Thank you At the moment we charge a flat rate of £2.50 per term for snack per child but we have been told that in September we are not able to charge anything extra for the 15 hour funding.Toying with the idea of putting out a fruit basket & asking parents to make donations or put in a fruit they would like their child to try if they won't at home? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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