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Menu and food and cleaning services for early childhood education and care

Eating in early childhood education and care is part of a child’s basic care, education and learning. Eating is a social event where you socialise with others, learn to taste new foods and new flavours, and learn good eating habits.

Nursery school menus

The menus of the nurseries are available on the eRuokalista website.

We follow the latest (2018) Healthy and happy food – dietary recommendations for early childhood education. In line with the nutrition recommendations, we pay attention to the nutritional content of meals, the amount of salt and the choice of ingredients. Meals include vegetables, berries, fruit, high-fibre bread, low-fat meat and dairy products and a vegetable fat protein. We follow a five-week rotating menu, taking into account the Christmas and Easter feast.

Domestic / local food

When it comes to sourcing, raw material selection and menu planning, domestic and local products are important to us, as well as sustainable and environmentally responsible food service operations. Potatoes and onions come from Siilinjärvi, berries and bread products from the local area. Meat, chicken, milk and dairy products are domestic. We take into account the seasonal variation of vegetables and fruit in our menu planning. Salads, tomatoes and cucumbers are domestic in the best harvest season. When the harvest season changes, raw materials may also be sourced from within the EU.

Special diets

The new national allergy programme and guidelines aim to avoid unnecessary allergy diets. We follow the national allergy programme in Siilinjärvi municipality’s early childhood education in cooperation with the children’s health clinic. People with special dietary needs receive their own meals based on a written statement from a nurse or doctor. All special dietary declarations are made with the health nurse at the health clinic and then submitted to the kindergarten kitchen.

The kitchen is proactively informed if a person with a special dietary requirement (e.g. celiac, dairy-free, multi-allergic) is absent, thus avoiding unnecessary meal preparation.

Skilled kitchen professionals

Environmental responsibility plays an important role in the kitchen’s operations.

On the early childhood education side, we are working on the Taste of the Apple Set diploma. The Diploma is a recognition awarded to nurseries for promoting nutritionally, educationally, socially and ecologically sustainable nursery food.

Carers are always welcome to discuss any food-related issues with the kitchen staff.

The Oiva reports on food control can be found on the Oivahymy website. Enter Siilinjärvi municipality in the search field.