Our food philosophy
At Little Moas Early Leaning centre, we understand the importance of nutrition with high quality, healthy meals. We grow our own organic veggies and herbs, and we strive to serve only natural whole foods. Our foods will never contain unnecessary artificial preservatives or contain unnecessary refined-sugar ingredients.
We believe that healthy eating habits begin at a young age and that children are strongly influenced by adults and their peers! Our teachers will model good eating habits and will sit with the children during mealtimes to encourage them to eat with appropriate table manners while they interact with each other. We focus on offering meals that have been carefully considered to provide high quality, nutrient dense options while eliminating processed foods, high additives and preservatives.
Our meals are refined sugar-free and we celebrate fresh, seasonal, local produce by growing our own organic veggies and fruits in our gorgeous food garden and by building close relationships with local farmers delivering fresh produce to our doors.
Our menu reflects our belief in care, nurture and respect. We only use free-range eggs. We make our own breads, muffins and jam from raw, wholesome ingredients.
Our menu can also be altered to cater for children with specific allergies and/or dietary requirements including vegetarian and vegan options.
Food fit for everyone
Little Moas provides a wholesome menu that can also be altered to cater for children with specific allergies and/or dietary requirements including vegetarian and vegan options.
We encourage our families to participate in our ‘garden-to-table’ program and are more than happy to learn about your family’s secret food recipes and your family’s knowledge about growing organic fruits and vegetables. If your family has a traditional recipe, we would love to feature it on our menu!
Little Moa's ELC is a nut free zone – no nuts are to be brought to or consumed by children on the premises.
Lunch Box Day
Children in our Rata Grove Space (4yrs and over) are encouraged to participate in Lunch Box Day, one day a week. We support parents and whanau in this new journey, providing resources and support with a lunchbox tips and tricks guide to help ensure everyone is prepared for lunch boxes when our tamariki go to school.
Young Tamariki
For our youngest tamariki we are guided by parents and whanau, only introducing new foods after you have introduced them at home, following your recommendations about the desired consistency and textures of these new foods.
Safer Eating Practices
All ECE services that provide food need to ensure that it is prepared in accordance with the newly introduced Ministry of Health guidance to reduce the risk of choking, while still meeting the nutritional and developmental needs of each child. As we sometimes have food brought in from home for special occasions, we will also now require these foods to meet the same guidelines.
Foods that are provided by families that do not meet these new guidelines will now either need to be processed at the centre in accordance with the guidelines OR if we are required to exclude them, removed and if necessary, replaced with another suitable food option from the centre kitchen.
We understand that these new guidelines may require more preparation and thought on the foods you provide for your child.
Please see below for the best practice guidelines from the Ministry of Health. If you have any questions, or would like further information, please speak to the centre manager.
Thanks in advance for your support with these guidelines, we really appreciate it!
Birthday Treats
In helping shape our children’s attitudes towards food we celebrate birthdays in house with a delectable healthy treat for the your child on our special birthday plate.
At afternoon tea, the birthday tamariki gets to enjoy this treat, surrounded by waiata (song), blowing out the special birthday candle and receiving a small birthday gift from Little Moas; enjoying their special day with their peers.
Celebrating a child’s birthday helps them to develop a sense of self-worth, recognising that they are important to others and an important part of the group. Celebrations like this enable children to share something that is important to them and through this they can continue to develop important social skills and awareness of others in the group.
Our Kai Creator – Chef Joy Dagdag
We have a qualified chef Joy Dagdag, who prepares delicious wholesome, refined sugar free meals in house, fresh, every day. With a Diploma in International Cookery under her belt, as well as a National Certificate in Hospitality and Food Safety Certificate, Joy is an experienced and highly skilled chef. Together with our Educational Consultants, Joy has designed a menu inspired by flavours from around the world while considering ingredients that optimise nutritional value.
Our Journey of Sustainability
In our journey, we encourage children to compost all food waste at Little s, or we save it to feed our worms! In all of the kai spaces we have We Compost collection bins to collect all food scraps and organic waste.