Nutrition
Refined sugar-free, natural and wholesome meals for little tummies — all included in your fees.
At Little Moa's Early Learning Centre, we understand the importance of nutrition with high quality, healthy meals. We grow our own organic veggies and herbs, and we strive to serve only natural whole foods.
We believe that healthy eating habits begin at a young age and that children are strongly influenced by adults and their peers. Our teachers model good eating habits and sit with the children during mealtimes to encourage them to eat with appropriate table manners while they interact with each other. We focus on offering meals that have been carefully considered to provide high quality, nutrient dense options while eliminating processed foods, high additives and preservatives.
Our meals are refined sugar-free and we celebrate fresh, seasonal, local produce by growing our own organic veggies and fruits in our gorgeous food garden and by building close relationships with local farmers delivering fresh produce to our doors.
Our menu reflects our belief in care, nurture and respect. We only use free-range eggs. We make our own breads, muffins and jam from raw, wholesome ingredients.
Our menu can be altered to cater for children with specific allergies and/or dietary requirements, including vegetarian and vegan options.
We encourage our families to take part in our ‘garden-to-table’ programme, and we'd love to learn your family's secret recipes and knowledge about growing organic fruit and vegetables. If your family has a traditional recipe, we would love to feature it on our menu!
Little Moa's ELC is a nut free zone — no nuts are to be brought to or consumed by children on the premises.
Children in our Rata Grove space (4 years and over) are encouraged to take part in Lunch Box Day, one day a week.
We support parents and whānau on this new journey with resources and a lunchbox tips and tricks guide, so everyone is prepared for lunch boxes when our tamariki go to school.
For our youngest tamariki we are guided by parents and whānau, only introducing new foods after you have introduced them at home.
We follow your recommendations about the desired consistency and textures of those new foods.
All ECE services that provide food must prepare it in line with Ministry of Health guidance to reduce the risk of choking, while still meeting each child's nutritional and developmental needs. Food brought in from home for special occasions must meet the same guidelines.
Foods provided by families that don't meet the guidelines will either be processed at the centre in line with them, or removed and if necessary replaced with a suitable option from the centre kitchen.
We understand these guidelines may require more preparation and thought — please speak to the centre manager if you have any questions.
In helping shape our children's attitudes towards food, we celebrate birthdays in house with a delectable healthy treat served on our special birthday plate.
At afternoon tea the birthday tamariki enjoys their treat surrounded by waiata, blowing out the special birthday candle and receiving a small gift from Little Moa's — enjoying their special day with their peers.
Celebrating a child's birthday helps them develop a sense of self-worth, recognising that they are important to others and an important part of the group. Celebrations like this let children share something meaningful and keep building social skills and awareness of others.
We have a qualified chef, Joy Dagdag, who prepares delicious wholesome, refined sugar-free meals in house, fresh, every day. With a Diploma in International Cookery, a National Certificate in Hospitality and a Food Safety Certificate, Joy is an experienced and highly skilled chef.
Together with our educational consultants, Joy has designed a menu inspired by flavours from around the world while considering ingredients that optimise nutritional value.
We encourage children to compost all food waste at Little Moa's, or we save it to feed our worms! Every kai space has a We Compost collection bin for food scraps and organic waste.
Discover more about our sustainability
We're happy to talk through allergies, dietary requirements and what a typical day of kai looks like at Little Moa's.
