Foods Offered Outside of Regular Meals and Snacks

Healthy options should be emphasized at all occasions where food is served.

If food is being served outside of a regular meal or snack time — such as during an activity, event, holiday, or celebration — providing healthy options instead of high-calorie, high-salt, or high-sugar "treats" is a way to support a culture of health and improve overall nutrition. To achieve this at a child care program, it is important to develop, share, and enforce written guidelines for healthier food options to be served at all occasions. Below you can find resources to guide healthy eating policies and practices outside of regular meals and snacks.

Best Practices

Click any best practice goal below to find resources that can help child care programs enforce healthy eating outside of regular meals and snacks.

“Celebrate holidays with mostly healthy foods and non-food treats.”
“Fundraising, if conducted, consists of selling non-food items only.”
“Provide and enforce written guidelines for healthier food brought in and served for holidays and celebrations.”

Resources to: “Celebrate holidays with mostly healthy foods and non-food treats.”

Go Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (Go NAPSACC) Bilingual Self-Assessments

Summary: Contacting a consultant and completing the online version of the Go NAPSACC assessments opens up a suite of planning, learning, and implementation tools to understand further what the health best practices are and how to reach them at your child care.
Source: Go Nutritional and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (Go NAPSACC)
Access: https://gonapsacc.org/our-focus-areas

Healthy Kids, Healthy Future

Summary: Under the section of "Nurture Healthy Eaters," find child activities and other resources by clicking on the left-hand menu.
Source: The Nemours Foundation
Access: https://healthykidshealthyfuture.org/5-healthy-goals/nurture-healthy-eaters/resources/

Model Policies for Creating a Healthy Nutrition and Physical Activity Environment in Child Care Settings

Summary: This nutrition toolkit describes model policies and provides tips to on how to fulfill them.
Source: Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Bureau of Community Food and Nutrition Assistance
Access: https://health.mo.gov/living/dnhs_pdfs/ChildCareModelPolicies.pdf

Sample Child Care Nutrition Policy

Summary: A sample policy that allows a center to fill in the blanks and customize to meet their needs.
Source: South Carolina Child Care Services
Access: http://www.scchildcare.org/media/6941/GH_SAMPLE_Level_B_Nutrition_Policy.pdf

Resources for: “Fundraising, if conducted, consists of selling non-food items only.”

Go Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (Go NAPSACC) Bilingual Self-Assessments

Model Policies for Creating a Healthy Nutrition and Physical Activity Environment in Child Care Settings

Resources to: “Provide and enforce written guidelines for healthier food brought in and served for holidays and celebrations.”

Action Guide: For Child Care Nutrition and Physical Activity Policies

Summary: Guidelines for feeding practice policies and practices that support child nutrition.
Source: Connecticut State Department of Education
Access: https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/sde/nutrition/cacfp/ccpolicy/child_care_action_guide.pdf

Go Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (Go NAPSACC) Bilingual Self-Assessments

Model Policies for Creating a Healthy Nutrition and Physical Activity Environment in Child Care Settings

Sample Child Care Nutrition Policy

MSU Extension SNAP-Ed