Good luck with that. You might want to check the state regs and know that accepting parent food gets you into a whole realm of problems dealing with allergies. Its actually simpler to do it yourself.
What did they put on for restrictions? Was there a form? Out of curiosity did they post any information online?
They have a parent manual online - we also have a hard copy - which includes a section on food. I've copied their instructions: https://gist.github.com/pavellishin/69b9dabdd3a9ae8ecd0dce46...
(I think there's a typo there - I believe that "because we do have a commercial kitchen" should be "because we do NOT have a commercial kitchen".)
I'm going to include the list of forbidden foods here. I'm surprised that carrots and grapes are forbidden; I don't know what sort of hazard carrots present.
> NUTS of any kind. This includes nuts in cereal or baked goods.
> PEANUT BUTTER, in any form
> RAW CARROTS, in any form
> HOT DOGS/SAUSAGES link style or cut in circles. They will be served only if diced.
> POPCORN, CHIPS, SODA, CANDY, and PRETZELS are never served (except at parties).
> FRESH GRAPES are never served. In fruit cocktail, you must remove or cut the grapes.
> HARD BOILED EGGS are served only if they are peeled and cut into quarters.
> FRESH FRUIT must be peeled, pitted, and cut. One exception: bananas.
> CHERRY TOMATOES will be served only if they are quartered.
> OLIVES will be served only if pitted and halved.
> SEAFOOD is a common allergen. If there is anyone in a class that has this allergy you may be
> asked not to bring seafood.
> MEAT or CHICKEN must be removed from the bone.
Grapes and Carrots are chocking hazards just like Hot Dogs and sausage. Grapes and Carrots are just not worth the trouble they will cause during such a busy time.
> I'm not sure what being rural and low-income has to do with it; can you expand on that?
People sometimes screw up and driving miles to fix the problem is an issue along with causing an unneeded expense for low-income folks. It was just much easier to come up with a dozen different meals and learn to assembly line them.
Even mashed? They specifically say that carrots in any form are forbidden. Maybe that's just badly phrased, though.
Sadly, its a real problem every time you put the responsibility on parents. This is just the reality of two systems interacting which should be a familiar theme for the folks on HN.
I'm still not convinced that putting in a kitchen is a better approach than having parents bring food; parents need to feed their children at home anyway, so they're going to have food. And if children have specific needs, parents will be better able to handle those as well. (For instance, the room my kid is in has children aged 4-10 months - the very small kids can only drink milk, mine is at the age where she can eat some pureed foods, and the older kids are happily eating crackers and other stuff.)
Kitchens also take up space - which is probably a bigger concern here in New York than your rural area.
I'm equally dumb then, but in our defense, someone has probably tried
> Kitchens also take up space - which is probably a bigger concern here in New York than your rural area.
Probably, but an urban area is in a much better position to contract with a local group to buy meals appropriate to the children. I look at it as a point of contention that can blow up. Your now mixing work and life in a very personal way. The easiest way to handle that is to provide the meals and document any issues for individuals that the provider (be it you or a contractor) need to handle. Avoiding problematic parental choices is worth quite a lot in the sanity of your child care staff.
Or can you?
http://simplegreensmoothies.com/tips/carrots and http://www.willitblend.com/
I suppose these modern children need to be taught to chew their food and not asphyxiate themselves by vacuuming it down whole.
Excluding the things on that list still leaves lots of fruits and vegetables.
> I suppose these modern children need to be taught to chew their food and not asphyxiate themselves by vacuuming it down whole.
I know you're being facetious, but small children are at a very serious risk of asphyxiation, and this daycare has four month olds which cannot really handle solid foods yet. So yeah. Modern children need to be taught how to chew, eat, and not asphyxiate. Ancient ones did, too.