In the Early Care and Education Kitchen

We embrace the slow food movement in the preparation of food for our small charges. We are respectful of the seasons and the cultural influences and opportunities that the menu and these foods provide us with each day. I often tell my cooks—“Look at this color”—we celebrate the fruits and vegetables each day in the raw form—we celebrate them in the colander. We also take the time to honor the farmer who grew this food that we are preparing when we do this. We prepare the food with love—with both a firm and gentle hand. We prepare all of the food from scratch and are true to the cultural traditions. When we prepare the miso soup, we take the time to soak the kombu in cold water for at least one hour before we gently place it on the stove. We believe in preparing food with minimal manipulation. We want the food to taste like food. We use the simple, correct names for children’s food, so that they will begin to incorporate these new words into their verbal, as well as dietary vocabularies. We also list all of the ingredients for each prepared food, so that teachers, families and children can know everything they are eating and the name of the farmers who grew it. In this way we are telling the children “we respect you.”