Busy Bees Nurseries have always elevated the importance of healthy eating, which is reflected in the nutritious, balanced meals the nurseries provide. Busy Bees continue to use a child nutritionist and work closely with our trained Catering Manager when devising our nursery menus, which include fresh fruit, oily fish and poultry, and vegetables.

Busy Bees employ a dedicated catering team, who work in professionally equipped kitchens, to prepare a choice of meals which contain quality, fresh ingredients. Our Nursery Cooks are required to complete an in-house certified EHO Basic Child Nutrition Course, along with the Nursery Manager.

Busy Bees partnered up with celebrity chef Phil Vickery in 2008 as part of a major national healthy eating campaign by Busy Bees to improve healthy eating among young children. During the campaign, Phil worked with the nurseries’ catering teams and an expert on child nutrition to devise a healthy, balanced new menu for the nurseries, which was rolled out nationwide. The new nursery recipes were distributed free of charge to all parents, and are available to read and download by clicking the links below.

In 2009, Busy Bees, Leapfrog and TLC Nurseries across the UK were awarded the ‘Encouraging Children to Eat Seafood’ category at the National Seafood Awards. The Busy Bees Group launched a ‘Seafood Project’, which specifically targeted children aged 5 and under, and involved nursery visits from seafood chef and child nutritionist, Ady Delaney. The topic of fish was introduced into all areas of the Busy Bees curriculum, and the children were able to cook with a variety of fish, as well as make sushi and develop role play areas themed around fish.

Busy Bees are continuously developing new and exciting campaigns to introduce and encourage healthy eating amongst children attending Busy Bees nurseries.

Busy Bees launched ‘Grow Your Own’ in 2010, which aims to encourage children who attend Busy Bees Nurseries to plant, water and watch their own produce grow, as well as take part in discussions on healthy living and life cycles. The children measure and monitor the growth of their food, before helping to prepare the fruit and vegetables for eating.

Busy Bees’ current project is ‘Cooking with me,’ which aims to introduce a ‘whole community’ approach to meal times. ‘Cooking with me’ involves groups of children working together to create recipes, and encourages them to explore other activities, such as painting, dressing up and role play, based on their cooking themes. The nurseries taking part in the scheme have received an exciting cookery pack containing 14 recipes cards, which include further activities to extend on the recipe themes, a set of 10 environmental cards displaying photographs and key words, 8 sets of mini hats and aprons for the children and a cooking equipment kit, specially designed for little hands.

Busy Bees is committed to delivering quality, balanced meals and snacks to all the children attending our nurseries, and will continue to set the standard for food excellence at Busy Bees and the childcare sector as a whole.