Planning Your Weekly Daycare Menu | Free Template + Samples

You know “what to cook today” doesn’t work for daycare, so you decided to prepare a weekly meal plan. You bring out a pen and piece of paper and sit down to plan weekly meals for kids. But now you’re stuck again at “what to serve on Monday, what’s the best meal combo, how many side dishes should I include?” and many more dreading questions.

After exhausting your time and energy, you crumble the paper and throw it in the bin.

Every daycare owner, whether center or home daycare, must climb the steep menu creation hill. However, a few strategic shifts, tips and methods can make this hill less steep.

Start with budget, management, and nutritional guidelines. Then, move towards recipes and menu creation.

We will take a close look at how to make a balanced plate for infants and toddlers, a weekly daycare menu template with 2 samples, its effective implementation, recipe selection, and how to manage your finances.

Daycare weekly menu creation optimized for efficiency and ease. Budgeting, nutrition, resource management, seasonal menus with samples and templates.

Menu Preparation

Before getting to the fun part, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Know your local regulatory daycare food guidelines.
Be clear on your budget.
Keep common food allergies and dietary restrictions in mind.
You might need templates to craft a presentable weekly meal chart for your daycare.
You might need an app or software to manage your meals and communicate them to your parents.

Meal Menu Creation Steps for Daycare

Step 1: Understanding Nutritional Needs

First, you need to know the nutritional requirements for each age group so you can serve them healthy and nurturing meals.

The key is to make a balanced plate with all the main nutrients, which we’ll discuss shortly.

You can also offer dishes from different cultures to promote inclusivity and introduce kids to new meals.

Infants

CACFP suggests giving at least 4 to 6 ounces of breast milk to babies up to 5 months and 6-8 ounces to babies above 5 months. They also suggest starting solid food at 6 months of age. It can be a bit early or delayed, depending upon the parent’s request and the infant’s needs. Cereals and breads should be whole-grain.

For more infant nutritional guidelines, visit CACFP’s Infant Meal Pattern.

Toddlers and Preschoolers

Remember these 5 food categories

Milk
Protein
Fruit
Vegetable
Grain

CACFP guidelines ask to serve milk, grains and fruit/veggies in breakfast. Lunch and dinner should include all 5 categories, and for snacks, you can pick any 2 categories except serving milk and fruit juice.

Another noteworthy point, the milk should be unflavored.

For more details, you can check these quicks links from CACF for breakfast, lunch and snacks.

Step 2: Menu Planning Techniques

Let’s structure your weekly menus. You know what categories to serve according to CACFP guidelines. Following that, you can easily make a balanced plate for your kids.

A good approach to daycare meals is to select a main dish, such as fried rice, and add side dishes that complete all 5 food groups. This sometimes confuses providers, as most recipes combine various ingredients. So, how will you count their food groups?

In such cases, you should only consider the main/prominent food groups. For example, if you’re serving egg fried rice, your dish contains carbs and protein; you only need to add the remaining 3 nutrients on the side.

Weekly Menu Planning Daycare Template

We’ve boxed up all this information into a practical weekly daycare menu planning template you can steal for free.

	Menu
Breakfast	Main dish: Grain-based Side dish: Fruit/Veggie Drink: Milk
Lunch	Main dish: Including grains, protein, fruit or veggie Side dish: Remaining nutrients Drink: Milk/Dairy
Snack	Any 2 food categories

Daycare Weekly Meal Planning Samples

Let’s have a look at the weekly meal planning daycare example charts. All these meals make a balanced plate with all the required nutrients.

Daycare Meal Sample 1

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Breakfast	Main dish: English muffins Side dish: Banana Drink: Milk	Main dish: French toast Side dish: Cucumber Drink: Yogurt	Main dish: Oatmeal cereal Side dish: Apple slices Drink: Milk	Main dish: Potato puffs Side dish: Grapes Drink: Yogurt	Main dish: Porridge Side dish: Strawberries Drink: Milk
Lunch	Main dish: Cheese garlic bread with hummus Side dish: French fries and watermelon Drink: Lemonade	Main dish: Roasted chicken pieces Side dish: Boiled rice and carrot sticks Drink: Smoothie	Main dish: Vegetable rice Side dish: strawberries Drink: Yogurt	Main dish: Lentil soup with whole wheat bread Side dish: Cucumber Drink: Smoothie	Main dish: Pasta with veggie sauce Side dish: chicken pieces and banana Drink:Yogurt
Snack	Steamed veggies and crackers or yogurt	Cottage cheese and fig bars	Applesauce and roasted sweet potatoes	Strawberries and milk	Banana and crackers

Daycare Meal Sample 2

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Breakfast	Main dish: Banana pancakes Side dish: Sliced carrots Drink: Milk	Main dish: Cornflakes Side dish: Apple slices Drink: Yogurt	Main dish: Avocado sandwiches Side dish: Kiwi and cucumber Drink: Milk	Main dish: Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches Side dish: Scrambled eggs Drink: Yogurt	Main dish: Oatmeal cereal Side dish: Grapes Drink: Milk
Lunch	Main dish: Chicken and veggie casserole Side dish: Avocado Drink: Milk/yogurt	Main dish: Chicken curry with rice Side dish: Strawberries and cucumber Drink: Milk	Main dish: Mac and cheese Side dish: Baked broccoli Drink: Smoothie	Main dish: Tofu and veggie stir fry Side dish: Boiled chickpeas Drink: Lemonade	Main dish: Chicken corn soup Side dish: Fruit skewer and whole grain cracker Drink: Milk/Water
Snack	Cracker with hummus and water	Vegetable skewer with water	Cereal and milk	Chicken nuggets with fruit juice	Pitta bread with hummus

Step 3: Recipe Selection and Development

A single search can yield hundreds of recipes. However, you need to carefully curate the dishes based on your specific situation.

Keep any allergens or dietary restrictions in mind.
Ensure the meals are healthy, nutrient-packed, and low in sugar.
Consider your budget when selecting recipes. You can dish out a meal with 4 ingredients and the same meal with 10 elements as well.
Select easy and quick recipes if you’re a home daycare. Centers often have dedicated cooks for meal preparation.
Avoid any ingredient/recipe that will be a dietary restriction for any kid. You don’t want to spend extra time and effort in preparing alternatives.

Seasonal Menu Changes

Kids develop their food preferences as soon as they start eating. So we need to introduce them to a variety of foods to help them develop their taste.

Once your meal plan is set, use it as a base to make minor modifications based on the season and occasion. The easiest way is to add seasonal fruits and vegetables instead of regular ones.

What you don’t want to do is change the entire plate to seasonal foods. The kids might not be interested in eating a completely new meal, and it’ll be heavy on your pocket tool. Instead, only replace one or two items with seasonal produce.

Budget Management

Now, let’s talk about finances. The big questions for you are:

Who will pay for the food? Can you manage that expense, or will you enroll in food programs? Some centers even charge extra for food, and some simply integrate it into their monthly rates, so the expense is on the parents.
Who will prepare the food? Will you hire someone, or is there someone to help you?
In case of hiring, who will pay for the cook?

These questions will help set up the foundation for further planning. Nevertheless, here are some additional tips as a cherry on top.

To save money and serve nutrition-rich food, buy raw materials and prepare the food in the center instead of buying frozen or processed items.
Avoid junk and sugary foods.
If you own a home daycare, serve such dishes in your daycare that the rest of the house members can eat. We want to minimize cooking and save time here.
Buy items in bulk if it’s cheaper than buying a handful of stuff.

Implementing Weekly Menu

At this point, your meal plan should be set to put into action.

Pasting it on a wall and following it is okay, but here’s how to make it efficient for you and an experience for the parents.
Set a rotating weekly menu for a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of four. You can paste it on your wall or fridge if you want, but put it up on your daycare app in advance so that the parents can see their child’s weekly meals. This will help them communicate their concerns in advance.
Another good spot to stick them is your daycare bulletin board.

Ask parents for feedback on the menu so you can adjust and upgrade it accordingly.

You can use your daycare app or maybe send a questionnaire back home with the kids. Similarly, collect feedback from your staff to optimize your meal plans for efficiency and ease.

Regulatory Compliance

Last but not least is to ensure your meal plan is adhering to your local regulatory compliance.

The US government restricts certain foods in childcare settings to ensure healthy eating.

Following all the food items to avoid in daycare servings:

High sodium items.
High-sugar foods: Yogurt shouldn’t have more than 23g of sugar per 6 ounces. Cereal shouldn’t have more than 6g of sugar for a dry ounce.
Flavored milk.
Foods with choking hazards, like berries and grapes.

For more information on meal planning regulations, check out the official US government document.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What Tools or Software Can Help Simplify Creating and Managing Weekly Menus?

Instead of creating your menu from scratch, use free or paid templates to help you get started. For real-world menu ideas, you can turn to Reddit, Quora, Facebook communities and forums like What to Expect that are dedicated to mothers and children.

Most daycare owners use 1 all-rounder software to help them manage their daycare tasks. Brightwheel and HiMama are at the top of this list.

2. What Factor Is Most Important to Consider When Planning Children’s Meals?

All you’re aiming for is a healthy, balanced plate that feeds the majority of the kids, if not all.

There are 2 main aspects to consider: Kids and their parents and you and your daycare.

Health, nutrition and diet concerns are all listed in the former category and budget, meal prepping, management and efficiency are in your bucket. These two have to go hand in hand to sprout a successful weekly childcare menu.

3. How Far in Advance Should Menus for a Childcare Facility Be Planned?

Aim to plan for an entire month or at least go bi-weekly with your daycare menu creation. Parents also like to see in advance what you’re feeding their kids.

4. How Can I Educate Parents About the Benefits of the Meals Provided at the Daycare?

Let’s take it from the very start. Use your handbook to mention the nutrients you serve. State the highlight meals of your daycare that are either unique, healthy or fit in a specific category like gluten-free or vegan.

Communicate with the parents, explaining the benefits of the meals you offer and allow them to ask questions to promote a healthy conversation and their satisfaction.

Lastly, you can go a step further with your menu and add the main nutrients of every meal or the component a certain food item is rich in.

5. How Do I Make a Weekly Food Chart?

You can use design software like Canva and Visme for simple drag-and-drop creation. However, if you’re someone with creative analysis paralysis, I highly recommend starting with templates. That blank canvas will exhaust your hours without you even noticing.

Conclusion

No matter how fancy templates and software you use, or how simply you make a line-drawn chart on a piece of paper, at the end of the day, your daycare menu planning comes down to two things: parents’ satisfaction and your ease.

I know daycare meal planning can be overwhelming; there are just way too many options and recipes. But focus on creating a balanced plate for one kid. Let that imaginary child have all the allergies and diet concerns so your menu can be inclusive to all without having to offer alternate meals.

Consider your budget, time and human resources before selecting dishes and recipes. Try to opt for quick meals to save time. And that’s how you can efficiently navigate your daycare meal preparation process.