Background: Over 95% of 3-4 year olds in New Zealand attend licensed childcare services; most for more than 20 hours/week. Increasingly, these services provide meals and snacks. This research aimed to evaluate the menus of routinely served food, and the quality of additional food provided at celebrations, in New Zealand childcare services.
Methods: Cross-sectional electronic survey of all licensed childcare services in Auckland, Counties Manukau and Waikato regions. Respondents were asked 65-items about nutrition and physical activity, and uploaded/emailed their menu and policies. Full-week menus were scored according to their compliance with nutrition guidelines for 50% of serves from each food group, variety, and everyday/sometimes/occasional foods. Bivariate analyses and a multivariate model were used to explore associations between childcare characteristics and a high menu score.
Results: 257 childcare services participated in the research (30% of all services invited). Food was provided to children daily in 56% of services, with 34% providing lunch and two snacks every day. Nearly all served additional food provided by parents at celebrations, with 26% usually serving three or more high fat/salt/sugar foods at each celebration. 57 services provided a full week’s menu (68% of those that provided food daily), with 39% obtaining a ‘good’ menu score of 8+/10 (mean 6.8). Being run by a community organisation rather than privately, employment of a cook, a high or low (but not medium) neighbourhood deprivation score, and participation in the Heart Foundation’s Healthy Heart Awards programme were positively associated with a ‘good’ menu score. Participation in the Healthy Heart Awards programme remained statistically associated with a higher menu score in the multivariate model (p=0.03).
Conclusion: Most childcare services are not meeting current New Zealand guidelines for 50% of recommended daily number of serves from each food group, variety and limiting ‘sometimes’ and ‘occasional’ foods.