Long day care: Tools & resources
These tools and resources support long day care centre staff including management, cooks and educators to increase children’s vegetable intake.
On this page you will find:
- A video series: Best Practice Guidelines for Increasing Children's Vegetable Intake in the Early Years
Presented by author and children’s food literacy advocate Alice Zaslavsky, the long day care best-practice guidelines video series provides an overview of the guidelines showcasing some specific examples to help inspire your centre’s staff. - A Long Day Care package of resources to encourage vegetable intake
A resource package to assist long day care centre staff, managers and cooks in increasing vegetable intake of the children in their care. This includes online training for cooks, online mealtime training for teachers and educators, and the Taste and Learn for Early Years curriculum. - Additional information and resources
These include an Infographic poster and user guide for the Best Practice Guidelines for Increasing Children's Vegetable Intake, a checklist of simple ideas that work in Long Day Care, and a Sample Quality Improvement Plan.
Video: Seven Best Practice Guidelines for Increasing Children’s Vegetable Intake in Early Years
Video: Guidelines 1 & 2 for Increasing Children’s Vegetable Intake in Early Years
Video: Guidelines 3 & 4 for Increasing Children’s Vegetable Intake in Early Years
Video: Guidelines 5 & 6 for Increasing Children’s Vegetable Intake in Early Years
Video: Guideline 7 for Increasing Children’s Vegetable Intake in Early Years
Long Day Care package of resources to encourage vegetable intake
We know that getting kids to eat vegetables can be challenging for long day care centres. The VegKIT team have developed a resource package to help you do just this. The package includes online training for cooks; online mealtime training for teachers and educators; and the Taste & Learn for Early Years curriculum.
Online training for cooks
This online training assists long day care cooks in planning and creating healthy menus to ensure adequate vegetable provision each day. Cooks can access simple meal, snack and drink ideas and shopping tips, and also learn about healthy ingredient swaps.
Access this online training here and select the Planning healthy menus for long day care training
Online mealtime training for educators
This online training assists educators in encouraging healthier mealtime behaviours. The training aims to increase educators’ knowledge and skills for using feeding practices that encourage children to taste and enjoy vegetables during mealtimes.
Access this online training here and select the Promoting healthy eating in long day care training.
Taste & Learn for Early Years curriculum
Taste & Learn for Early Years is a curriculum resource for Long Day Care (LDC) that can be used with children 2-5 years. It has been designed and written by leading experts with extensive experience in early education, and in consultation with experts on the ground. The curriculum aims to increase children’s vegetable enjoyment of, and willingness to eat, vegetables through curriculum-aligned intentional teaching and snack time activities.
Download the Taste & Learn for Early Years curriculum resources here.
Additional information and resources
Best practice guidelines for increasing children's vegetable intake: Long day care
The long day care user guide, designed to be utilised by management, educators and cooks details the best practice guidelines for increasing children’s vegetable intake alongside many practical examples and resources to assist with implementation.
For a print friendly version, click here.
What you can do: A checklist of simple ideas that work in Long Day Care
This checklist is a useful tool directed to cooks, educators and management that can help your centre to track implementation of activities known to help increase children’s vegetable intake.
For a print friendly version, click here.
Infographic: Best Practice Guidelines for Increasing Children's Vegetable Intake
The seven best practice guidelines for long day care are outlined in this infographic which is designed as a quick reference tool to be on display for all staff.
For a print friendly version, click here.
Sample Quality Improvement Plan: Incorporating the Best Practice Guidelines to Increase Children's Vegetable Intake in Long Day Care
We have provided some examples to assist long day care management to incorporate activities that will support children’s vegetable intake into their Quality Improvement Plan (QIP).
For a print friendly version, click here.