Helping you to plan nourishing menus for the children in your care

Infancy and early childhood is an important time for focusing on nutrition and obesity prevention strategies, as food preferences and eating habits are established during this time and are often retained into adulthood. The early childhood education and care setting provides a wonderful opportunity to introduce children to a wide range of nourishing foods and to limit their intake of discretionary foods.

Central Coast Local Health District’s Nutrition Service works with Central Coast Health Promotion Service to support our local early childhood services to ensure their menus meet the nutritional needs of the children in their care. We offer menu planning resources, menu review services, and training opportunities. We also provide regular, ongoing support through our Cooks Network meetings, Cooks Corner e-newsletter, Ask the Dietitian service and local childcare recipe bank.

Healthy menu support

The Caring for Children Birth to 5 years manual cover.

Caring for children menu planning guides

The NSW Health Caring for Children guides provide menu planning information and checklists to help you plan a menu that meets the nutritional needs of the children in your care.

A child in an apron and hat with flour and a roller and rolling board.

Submit your menu for an annual review

Our dietitians can assess your menu to see if it meets the Caring for Children guidelines. Menus that meet the guidelines will receive documentation that can be used to show parents, accreditors and the wider community.

A screenshot of the Menu Matters e-newsletter.

Menu Matters e-newsletter

Our regular Menu Matters e-newsletter provides information on the latest menu planning news, upcoming events and highlights recent successful menu reviews.

A young woman with an apron on smiling at a kitchen bench with the Patch to Plate recipe book open.

Ask the Dietitian

Got a childcare menu-related nutrition question? Submit your question and one of our dietitians will respond.

Early Childcare Healthy Menu Planning Essentials course

Are you new to menu planning in the early childcare setting? Do you want a refresher on how to plan nourishing menus for early childcare? Are you wanting to meet Munch & Move practices in relation to cook training?

Then register for our Early Childcare Healthy Menu Planning Essentials course.

A screenshot of the Healthy Menu Planning Essentials course start screen.

What is it?

The course is a self-paced online course for cooks and other interested early childcare service staff. The interactive modules can be done on smartphones, tablets or computer and range in length from 10 to 30 mins.

What do participants say?

“Loved how interactive it was and better than sitting in a workshop.”

“Easy, informative, enjoyable.”

You can also access additional healthy menu planning training courses on subjects such as identifying picky eaters and managing food allergies in the kitchen.

Menu planning FAQs

Got a childcare menu-related question? Check out our Early Childcare Menu Planning Frequently Asked Questions page. It has answers to frequent and important questions we receive and gives you the opportunity to submit your own question.

Healthy early childhood recipes

Chicken fried rice.

Chicken fried rice

Toasted muesli with yoghurt and fruit.

Toasted muesli with yoghurt and fruit

Red lentil and pumpkin soup.

Red lentil and pumpkin soup

Italian meatball and vegetable pasta bake.

Italian meatball and vegetable pasta bake

Tomato vegetable wholemeal pasta.

Tomato vegetable wholemeal pasta

Mexican tuna.

Mexican tuna

Cajun chicken pasta bake

Cajun chicken pasta bake

Cook of the Year Award

Our popular Central Coast Early Childhood Education and Care Service Cook of the Year Award is back in 2024.   

The Cook of the Year will win a $300 voucher for kitchen supplies and their service will win a children’s cooking pack and set of food-related storybooks. Entries are now closed and the winner will be announced soon.

Who is eligible?

Any cook whose childcare menu has been awarded a Central Coast Local Health District Healthy Menu Award since November 2023 is eligible.

A smiling woman in a chef's outfit with healthy ingredients up in the air around her.

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