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- Evidence of food growing projects

- Composting or recycling initiatives

- Use of local suppliers or reduced packaging

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- Completed NOF self-assessment tool

- Updated food policy aligned with EYFS guidance* (mandatory)

- Menus reviewed against DfE standards* (mandatory)

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- Regular information sharing such as newsletters or emails about nutrition* (mandatory)

- Workshop flyers or attendance logs

- Feedback forms from parents

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- Planning documents showing integration of food topics into all 7 areas

- Activity photos (e.g., counting fruit, storytelling about meals)

- Learning journals with food-related entries

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- Surveys or drawings from children about food

- Recorded conversations or quotes

- Adaptations made based on child feedback

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- Photos/videos of mealtime environments

- Observations of child interactions

- Changes made based on reflective practice

– have you used the Laura Matthews Mealtime environments document available on the NOF padlet?(e.g., seating arrangements, utensils) * (mandatory)

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- Case studies or blog posts shared with other settings

- Presentations at local forums or NOF events

- Social media posts showcasing practice

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- Certificate of completion for food/nutrition CPD (at least 1 member of staff)

– have you watched the Nursery Kitchen video resources available on the NOF padlet* (mandatory)

- Reflections or action plans showing how training has been embedded

- Staff meeting minutes discussing nutrition practice

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Parent Guide: EYFS Nutrition Guidance (DfE, 2025)

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Parent Guide: EYFS Nutrition Guidance (DfE, 2025)

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This pamphlet, created by Registered Nutritionist Charlotte Stirling-Reed, breaks down the key points of the new EYFS Nutrition Guidance (DfE, 2025) and offers practical tips for supporting healthy eating in your setting. Please share this resource with parents and carers.

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- Event registration confirmations

- Reflections or notes from each event (e.g. conference, community Café) * (mandatory)

- Implementation of ideas gained from events

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NOF training - available on Education Essex

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NOF training - available on Education Essex

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The NOF Award email address - theNOFaward@essex.gov.uk

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The NOF Award email address - theNOFaward@essex.gov.uk

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Essex Early Years and Childcare Charter 2025 - FREE Membership

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Our Early Years and Childcare Charter embeds the vision from our Early Years and Childcare Strategy which sets out how we will help every child in Essex get the best start in life. The Charter

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Training videos available on Education Essex

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Training videos available on Education Essex

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We offer Early Years settings a set of activities designed to give children the chance to experience new vegetables and fruits in a positive way. You can access a training video and easy to use lesson plans, meaning in no time you'll be ready to deliver TastEd in your setting.

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Here are some activities you can try yourselves at home. For each activity the basic steps are:

1. Here is some food
2. Tell me what you see, feel, hear, smell, taste
3. You can try some of the food if you like (remember the golden rules!)

Click on the sense icon below to try an activity.

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Activities to do at home - Taste Education

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Here are some activities you can try yourselves at home. For each activity the basic steps are: 1. Here is some food 2. Tell me what you see, feel, hear, smell, taste 3. You can try some of the food if you like (remember the golden rules!)

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How to Effectively Engage and Support Parents and/or Carers.

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How to Effectively Engage and Support Parents and/or Carers.

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Designed by Laura Matthews- Registered Nutritionist providing support on EYFS Nutrition Guidance (DfE,2025) parent/carer engagement requirements. Please edit the document so that it is tailored to your setting.

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We also have an Allergen Guide to help you throughout this award on the main NOF Award home page under Allergies & Intolerances

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Making Mealtimes a Positive Experience at Nursery 

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Making Mealtimes a Positive Experience at Nursery 

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Creating a positive mealtime environment within your nursery setting can make a huge different to how children view meals and food and to how the process of mealtimes goes each day too. Children have opportunities at nursery to learn about food and to understand the importance of food and a balanced diet.

In my blog today, I'm sharing some of my top tips for childcare settings around creating a positive and enjoyable mealtime experience for children at nursery or kindergarten or other early years settings.

Get the atmosphere right

It's a good idea to consider the area in which children are eating. Ensure the environment is clean, engaging and (importantly), free from distractions. Distractions can really inhibit children eating at mealtimes, so having a really good "clear away" time and ensure that mealtimes are about food and not play is key! Use colourful tablecloths if you can to add some excitement or even placemats with the children's names on them (you can even make them at nursery yourselves) to help them get a bit excited for mealtimes. It's best if the tables and chairs you're using are suitable for the age and size of the children, so that they can sit and eat comfortably and not be inclined to fiddle around so much at mealtimes. Using appropriate cutlery can really help too to make the mealtime experience a little easier for them. Smaller cutlery and soft or plastic options can help, including bowls and plates too. You might like to read more in my blog about cutlery for babies and toddlers.

Get the STAFF involved

As staff, you are role models to the children in your setting. They will look up to you and copy you. So it's important to realise and notice that your language and reactions to food really do matter. If you can try to use positive or neutral language around food, it may be really helpful to allow little ones to make up their own mind about a dish or what's on their plate. Additionally, staff sitting and eating the same food (ideal but not essential) with the children at mealtimes can be such a brilliant opportunity to model conviviality and enjoyment of food and the social aspect of eating. Remember you're role models, so if they watch you eating and enjoying food, they're more likely to follow suit.

Sociable Mealtimes

I love to talk about conviviality and commensality - essentially the sociable aspect of mealtimes and eating together and enjoying shared meals. It's a big reason many of us like eating and is also a big part of the proposed benefits of Mediterranean-style eating. Often, when young children eat together, they enjoy more foods than they might at home. So at nursery it's good to encourage meals to be a sociable occasion, encouraging conversation and engaging with them yourselves.

It's also a great time to talk about food cultures and the kinds of food we enjoy at different times of the year.

Stick to a mealtime structure or routine

Ideally, it's best to offer plenty of opportunities for young children to eat. For example, offering three meals a day and around two snacking occasions. A pudding can be helpful to offer with lunch and tea as it offers more opportunity for children to get energy and nutrients throughout the day (important to make these puddings "healthy options" and not just sugary options). Children like routine and like to know when to expect foods so that they can understand their own hunger and fullness cues a little more.

Leave a nice gap between meals and snacks to help build up an appetite for the children and give plenty of time outside of meals for running around and exploring elsewhere.

Mealtimes should last around 30 minutes, so that children have enough time to eat, without feeling rushed¹. Have set meal and snack times to help children get into a routine¹.

Encourage "Responsive Feeding"

One thing that can be really key for little ones to learn is about their own hunger and fullness cues. For generations, it's almost been the opposite with recommendations, guidelines, opinions and parents often dictating how much should be eaten by any individual child. But if you think about it, all children (just like us as adults) are likely to have different appetites. Moreover, their appetites are likely to be affected day to day by many, many things.

From a young age children can be very intuitive about HOW MUCH they need to eat and so it's generally recommended by nutritionists and dietitians to follow the rule whereby the parent/adult/nursery staff decides what is on offer, but lets a child dictate how much they want to eat (within reason, obviously, as in a nursery setting there is always going to be limitations on portions.) Seconds are fine if they are available and also if a child DOESN'T want their meal, it's not a good idea to coax or bribe or force them to eat. Punishments around how much is eaten (if you don't eat your dinner, you can't have any pudding) are also not recommended either. Especially if the pudding is going to offer a healthy dose of extra calories and nutrients that are needed for growing kids!

I'll write about this more soon, but you could always check my " portion sizes" factsheet for more information on responsive feeding and following a child's individual appetite as much as you can.

Giving plenty of time for children to eat at their own pace can also help, too.

Offer Food Variety

Introducing a variety of foods at an early age can help children develop a taste for different flavours and learn to accept a wider variety as they get older. Nursery is the perfect place to experiment with this as kids will be offered the same foods on rotation (often) for a few weeks and this can help build familiarity, especially if there is plenty of variety on the menu in the first place. Encourage children to try new foods but don't force them - role modelling or using other role models to sit with them (without comment or pressures) can really help! It can take up to 15 tries for a child to like a new food in some instances.

Involving Children in Meal Preparation

Involving children in meal preparation can make them more interested in the food they eat. They can help with simple tasks like washing vegetables or setting the table. Or be the "food helper" that day. Getting them involved is often something they love to do, but it also helps them to learn more about food and the skills needed around food prep too.

Nutritious and Balanced Meals

Providing nutritious, balanced and varied meals is so important for children's growth and development throughout the early years and beyond. This means it's so important for nursery settings to be offering delicious and healthy meals to children in their settings - regardless of whether or not they are checked regularly by any authority. Children are growing and developing at a fast pace and this blog on the First 1000 days of life really shows why these early years are important for establishing health and also healthy behaviours around foods.

Ensure meals include a variety of foods from the four main food groups: fruits and vegetables, starchy foods, protein foods, and dairy or dairy alternatives. And follow the Government guidelines on Food Served in Early Years Settings.

Keep them hydrated with milk and/or water

Milk and water are all the fluids that your little ones need in a nursery setting, so stick to these for their drinks and allow them to drink as much water as they'd like to throughout the day. You can help set little reminders or give someone a task of topping up their friends water throughout the day if it helps. Keeping children hydrated is just as important as feeding them nutritious meals.

Allergies and Dietary Requirements

Be aware of any allergies or dietary requirements children may have. It's ideal to have a Food Policy at your nursery and take details and plans from any children who have Special Dietary Requirements. Communication with parents at sign on is so important to help get this right. Always check with parents or carers before introducing new food and it's always a good idea to send home the menus.

Helping with Food Refusal in Nursery Settings

Another common thing that nursery staff may have to figure out is Fussy Eating and Food Refusal and this can be REALLY challenging when you have multiple children to feed and offer multiple meals each day!

Fussy eating is a common phase that many children go through, but there are several strategies that nursery settings can employ to help support fussy eaters.

1. Give them time - they may build familiarity with the menus as they see the same foods over and over again

2. Communicate with parents and find out what does or doesn't work at home

3. Avoid pressuring them to eat foods

4. Sit them with kids who tend to enjoy their foods

5. Role model where you can and avoid commenting too much on their foods or what they are or aren't eating

6. Offer smaller portions and allow "seconds" of any parts of the meal they do enjoy - if available

7. Try and ensure everyone in the setting responds in the same way - consistency matters

8. See if you can get them involved more with food prep or learning about food outside of the mealtimes

9. Allow them to follow their own appetites but communicate with parents if and when you're worried.

Remember, every child is unique and what works for one might not work for another. It's important to be patient, persistent, and positive. For more advice see my Fussy Eating Factsheet or try out my Fussy Eating crash Course for parents.

Lastly, creating a positive mealtime environment is not just about the food. It's about creating a space where children feel comfortable, safe, and happy. It's about teaching them about nutrition and healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime.

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Making Mealtimes a Positive Experience at Nursery - SR Nutrition

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Making Mealtimes a Positive Experience at Nursery with The Baby & Child Nutritionist, Charlotte Stirling Reed. Food advice for toddlers

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How to Manage Behaviour to Help Kids Enjoy Mealtimes

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How to Manage Behaviour to Help Kids Enjoy Mealtimes

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How to Manage Behaviour to Help Kids Enjoy Mealtimes - SR Nutrition

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How To Manage Toddler Behaviour to Help Kids Enjoy Mealtimes

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Getting children involved food is ALWAYS a good idea. Whether it's to reduce their fussy eating behaviours, help them learn more about foods or even just to give you a helping hand in the kitchen. There are some fab ideas for recipes out there that can be created with children and for children. But in this week's blog, I wanted to look at food growing with kids, which can be just as exciting and help children really get to grips with where foods come from. There are many organisations that encourage food growing - including Brighton and Hove Food Partnership, which does fantastic work in this area. Many schools are now also joining forces with allotments or even having a food growing patch on site.

As parents, you could also help to encourage food growing at home too. This week's blog post includes a really simple infographic, looking at how to grow your own mint. It's really easy and you only need a few pieces of equipment to get going.

Enjoy 🙂

Used with permission of Sainsbury's Bank.

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A great infographic looking at food growing with kids and getting young children involved in all aspects of food. This week we look at growing mint!

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How Nursery Food Standards Are Changing and What Parents Can Expect

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How Nursery Food Standards Are Changing and What Parents Can Expect

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How Nursery Food Standards Are Changing and What Parents Can Expect

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How Nursery Food Standards Are Changing and What Parents Can Expect. Article by SR Nutrition & Laura Matthews on nursery food standards

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A Parent’s Guide To Feeding Your Neurodiverse Child

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A Parent’s Guide To Feeding Your Neurodiverse Child

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A Parent’s Guide To Feeding Your Neurodiverse Child

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A Parent’s Guide To Feeding Your Neurodiverse Child by The Baby & Child Nutritionist Charlotte Stirling Reed along with Laura Bottiglieri

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A Healthy Shopping List for Parents... - SR Nutrition

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I’ve teamed up with Shoptimix to create a healthy shopping list for parents. My latest blog includes an explanation for why my Shopping list is so healthy!

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Eating well: Packed lunches for 1-5 year olds 

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Eating well: Packed lunches for 1-5 year olds 

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Guide for parents and families by First Steps Nutrition

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FSN Eating Well_Packed lunch_Mar 2024_DIGITAL

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First Steps Nutrition Recipe Book

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FSN Eating well recipe book_Oct 2023_DIGITAL

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Eating well: snacks for 1 to under 5-year olds

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Eating well: snacks for 1 to under 5-year olds

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First Steps Nutrition Guide

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FSN_Eating Well snacks_1 to under-5 year olds_Sept 23_DIGITAL (1)

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Good food choices and portion sizes for 1 to under-5 year olds

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Good food choices and portion sizes for 1 to under-5 year olds

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First Steps Nutrition Guide

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Good Food choices 1 to under-5 year olds_Aug 2024_DIGITALi

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Blog by Early Start Nutrition

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Welcome to the 3-5 Years area. Here you’ll find activity ideas and resources to support the teaching and learning of food with young children. They have been developed to be used by early years specialists to stimulate children’s interest in food.

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Be playful with the cameras and microphones to gather voices and make learning playful

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Webcam for PC with Microphone - 1080P FHD Webcam with Privacy Cover, Plug and Play USB Web Camera for Desktop & Laptop Conference, Meeting, Zoom, Skype, Facetime, Windows, Linux, and macOS

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YIMONA Webcam for PC with Microphone - 1080P FHD Webcam with Privacy Cover, Plug and Play USB Web Camera for Desktop & Laptop Conference, Meeting, Zoom, Skype, Facetime, Windows, Linux, and macOS: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

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Gathering views with arts & crafts e.g drawing their idea of a healthy plate of food, or their favourite healthy meal

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Creating stories about their favourite foods, cooking etc

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Exploring and trying different foods and gathering their views on each

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Use of puppets to talk about feelings around food

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Observing them playing in a cafe/snack shop

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Using microphones/cameras to record 'interviews' when cooking/eating etc

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'Yum', 'not today please', 'more please', 'I want to learn about this.

Create fun picture cards and encourage them to use them during snack and mealtimes

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Demonstrating how hearing child voice translates into planning/changes

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Visuals and snapshots on 'what we ate this week'

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Visuals and snapshots on 'what we ate this week'

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Sharing photos, favourite snacks/foods, any new learning about food and nutrition

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Bite-sized updates on what children are learning about food, tips families can try at home, recipe sharing

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Drop in 'taste and talk' sessions with parents 

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Drop in 'taste and talk' sessions with parents 

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Family tasting, snack guidance, recipes and sharing learning

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- Completed testimonial form* (mandatory)

- Reflections on impact (e.g., quotes from staff/parents)

- Before-and-after comparisons of practice

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Working with Parents on Nutrition Webinar Opportunity

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Working with Parents on Nutrition Webinar Opportunity

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Charlotte Stirling Reed (Registered Nutritionist) and Zebedees are running a CPD-accredited webinar covering "Working with Parents on Nutrition" and offers support for nursery and early years staff navigating feeding little ones and the relationship between them and parents. If you would like to join and continue building strong parent partnerships that support children’s long‑term wellbeing, you can reserve your place now using the link attached.

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Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams

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Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams

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Laura Matthews, Registered Nutritionist, has designed a Menu Planning & Recipe Ideas. This resource provides practical support for planning menus, understanding nutrition requirements, managing portion sizes, and supporting parents and carers with packed lunches.

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Self Assessment of EYFS Nutrition Guidance 

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Self Assessment of EYFS Nutrition Guidance 

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Self assessment of EYFS Nutrition guidance (2)