Kids & Staff Eating Up New Food Menu
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Lil’ People’s World has a new menu, and we want to shout it from the rooftops!
Over the past 4 weeks, our teams have been working diligently with their chefs to provide our children and teachers with tasty new foods! We’ve added in a few vegetarian dishes, more chicken dishes, incorporated different spices, and added in fruits and vegetables that we haven’t offered before. Many items on the menu are made from scratch, and we are also baking our own muffins and breads!
Creating Our New Menu
Creating the new menu took a lot of planning and collaboration. The menu had not been changed since the Centers opened, so it was due time. Preparing this menu took months of research — looking at other menus and ideas, comparing ours to USDA menus, reviewing other providers’ offerings, and switching around some ingredients to make our food a bit more kid friendly. Through this process, we think we’ve come up with a great variety of foods that everyone should be able to enjoy.
One of our goals was to introduce some diversity to our menu. We accomplished this by adding new flavors and textures, offering multiple protein options, and incorporating color through different vegetables and fruits. These were all big contributing factors to where our menu is today.
A fan favorite — cheese ravioli, steamed broccoli, and toasted garlic bread.
We enjoy the fact that the USDA food program allows us an outline to provide our children with well-balanced meals and snacks throughout the day. Portion sizes are well thought out, so children are being served the appropriate amounts of food while in our care.
A delicious meal of chickpea gyros, mandarin oranges, and broccoli. We prepare meals with every age in mind!
Our new menu also includes infant food service, which we are so happy to be able to include. Because children are being introduced to foods at around 6 months, the menu gave us a chance to think about what appropriate food service looks like for children at all different developmental levels. That being said, we were able to focus on adding in additional kitchen tools and instruments needed to provide our smaller children with appropriately textured foods.
Investing in our kitchens was an integral part of making this menu successful.
We want to give a HUGE shout out to our chefs at all three Lil’ People’s World locations — Bellevue, Kirkland, and Seattle! They have all been so patient, thorough, and detail oriented in the new menu process as well as in preparing all the new meals and snacks. Taking on a new menu for our chefs was a pretty big endeavor, and they all have been amazing throughout the process and done a fabulous job!
Thank you, Chefs! We couldn’t do this without all of you!
Next time you are in the Center, feel free to stop by the kitchen and thank your chef!
Feedback from Kids & Staff
So far, our kiddos and teachers have had some great things to say about the menu. Please check in with your child(ren) to learn about their new eating experience at school and what their favorite dish has been. We hope everyone is enjoying the new food!
