Little Wonders Daycare Applying for Healthier Kentucky Child Care Challenge

This week Little Wonders Daycare (LWDC) is launching their new meal plan menus as part of their application to the Healthier KY Child Care Challenge.  This challenge is a subset of the overall Healthier KY Challenge (HKYC) for better nutrition and increased physical activity for Kentuckians.  

The Healthier KY Child Care Challenge is modeled after the Healthier US Schools Challenge which is all about meeting the nutritional needs of the child care population as well as changes to the child meal pattern.   The challenge focuses on criteria for offering a greater selection of fruits and vegetables, offering more whole grain components and reducing the amount of fats being served.

These standards are above the recommended nutritional guidelines and can qualify the Little Wonders Daycare meal program for either a Gold or Silver Certificate along with state-wide recognition.  The program is designed for children age 3 and up.

LWDC is applying for the HKYC Gold certificate which includes maintaining the following standards.

• Meals must include fresh fruits or raw vegetables served daily; two or more sources of iron daily; and a dried bean (such as beans, Great Northern or navy beans, Kidney or red beans, Black beans, Lentils, Garbanzo beans (chickpeas), Cow peas, Split peas, Black-eyed peas) will be served one or more times per week. Additionally, meal plans must have variety by using a minimum of a four week menu cycle.
• Physical activity opportunities must be provided once daily for with at least 30 minutes of structured physical activity each day.

The LWDC Director, Juanita Stephens, says, “We are excited to partner with Division of School and Community Nutrition to be part of the HKYC.  This is a great opportunity for daycare centers to adopt the HKYC message and challenge each other to a little “healthy competition” that will benefit our children and families.   Our new menus for October are posted on our daycare bulletin boards or you can view them on our website at https://www.littlewondersdaycareinc.com/little-wonders-daycare-weekly-menus-and-meals/ . ”