Bunny Tales Day Nursery
'Where Everyday is an Adventure'
🌟 Our Aim
At Bunny Tales Day Nursery, we want every packed lunch brought from home (and eaten at nursery or on trips) to be healthy, nutritious, and safe, supporting children’s wellbeing and helping them feel ready to learn and play.
Packed lunches should be similar in quality to the food we provide at nursery and follow national Early Years nutrition guidance.
💚 Why We Have This Policy
This policy helps us to:
- Support children’s health, growth, and development
- Encourage positive eating habits from an early age
- Follow Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Ofsted food and nutrition guidance, and funding
- Create a happy, calm, and enjoyable lunchtime environment
🏫 How We Support Children
At Bunny Tales Day Nursery, we will:
- Provide a safe and clean area for children to eat
- Ensure fresh drinking water is available at all times
- Work in partnership with parents and carers to encourage healthy lunch choices
ℹ️ Please note: We do not have additional fridge space. Lunches should be packed in insulated lunch bags, ideally with a freezer block where possible.
✅ What a Healthy Lunchbox Should Include
We encourage parents to include most of the following every day:
🥕 Fruit or vegetables
- At least one portion every day
🍗 Protein (non‑dairy)
- Meat, fish, lentils, beans, soya, or hummus
🍞 Starchy foods
- Bread, wraps, pittas, chapattis, or similar
🧀 Dairy foods
- Milk, cheese, yoghurt, fromage frais, or custard
🚫 Please note: Dairy Lunchables (or similar products) are not allowed as they have a high salt and fat content
🍎 Healthier snack options
- Cereal bars (must be nut‑free)
- Pretzels, seeds, crackers
- Vegetable sticks, fruit, or breadsticks
🚫 Foods Not Allowed in Lunchboxes
For children’s health and safety, please do not include:
- Crisps or snacks high in salt
- Sweets and confectionery
- Nuts or foods containing nuts
- Fizzy drinks
- Popcorn, chewing gum, or marshmallows
- Peanut butter
- Jelly cubes (never give young children raw cubes of jelly)
- Boiled, hard, sticky, or cough sweets
- Ice cubes
⚠️ Keeping Food Safe – Reducing Choking Risks
To help keep children safe at lunchtime, please prepare foods carefully:
🍓 Fruit & Vegetables
- Always remove pips and stones
- Cut small, round foods (grapes, cherry tomatoes, berries) lengthways and into small pieces
- Slice larger fruits (such as apples or melon) rather than cutting into chunks
- For babies/younger children, consider grating, mashing, or softening fruit and vegetables, in line with stage of development
- Cut vegetables into narrow batons
- Consider removing skins for very young children
🍗 Meat & Fish
- Remove all bones, skin, and excess fat
- Cut meat into thin strips
- Cut sausages and hot dogs into short, thin strips and remove skins
🧀 Cheese & Bread
- Grate or cut cheese into small strips
- Brown bread or lightly toasted white bread is safer than soft white bread
- Cut bread, wraps, and flatbreads into narrow strips
🍇 Dried Fruit
- Whole dried fruit (such as raisins) is not suitable for babies or children under one
- Cut dried fruit into small pieces for younger children
🤝 Working Together
Thank you for supporting Bunny Tales Day Nursery in keeping all children healthy, safe, and happy at lunchtime.
If you have any questions, concerns, or would like lunchbox ideas, please speak to a member of the nursery team