Newstead Kitchen Bee Cafeteria

Our centre is facilitated with a 600 sqft professional commercial licensed kitchen, which gives us the unique ability to cook all of our meals from scratch. We are proud to be one of the few child care centres in the GTA who have the full license for the commericial grade kitchen. By cooking on site, we can guarantee that our food is always fresh, tasty, and healthy.

Food has a significant impact on a child’s development, health, happiness, and well-being and we strive to provide the highest quality ingredients possible. We have created a nutritionally dense menu, featuring a variety of healthy seasonal food, organic and locally-grown when possible, globally inspired from different cultures. Our menu is not only healthy, it’s delicious. We promote a healthy eating child care environment that fuels both the body and mind.

We are focused on achieving optimal health through whole foods and a balanced lifestyle. Much of our health depends on what we choose to eat and as adults, it is an active choice we make every day. Children, however, do not have this choice. Daycares are a large part of a child’s upbringing, especially during their critical development years, and so it is crucial that your children are given a nutritionally dense menu which will ensure they thrive.

It was a challenge creating something nutritionally dense that children would enjoy considering all the parameters we needed to follow. We are required to follow Canada’s food guide and incorporate all 4 food groups: dairy, cereals, vegetables & fruit and meat. We couldn’t incorporate nuts because of allergies, which also eliminated most seeds due to the fact most are processed in the same facilities.

We strongly believe in fermented foods, so for dairy we have incorporated a lot of yogurt into recipes or have yogurt based dips/sauces made from scratch as condiments. All creamy salads are made healthier by replacing most of the mayonnaise with plain yogurt and made sweeter using fruit and maple syrup, such as our Curried Chicken and Springtime Basil Chicken Lettuce Wraps. For grains, we have switched entirely to whole-wheat bread, whole-wheat pasta or brown rice. We have also rotated in new grains such as quinoa and bulgur on a more regular basis. For high protein sources, we have cut out processed meats and in some recipes cut down on the amount of meat, including more plant-based proteins such as beans or tofu. 

Aside from these new introductions, we have loaded the menu with fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs and some spices. Our goal was to include fresh vegetables or fruit into every meal and snack. Vegetables and fruit are some of the most nutritionally dense and diverse foods we can ever eat and so it is important to introduce children to a rainbow of these foods early on in hopes that they develop an appreciation for all food. For example, our featured cuisine like Chinese beef stew with brown rice, Indian chickpea biryani, and a southwestern rice-and-bean bowl. These adventurous dishes encourage even the chicken-finger and French-fry lovers among our kids (and there are plenty of them!) to give new experiences and flavors a try. But do they try it? You bet! Our teachers and chefs do a masterful job of introducing the wonderful world of flavors to children and their developing palates, and we’ve made sure our new recipes are kid-approved by testing them first.  

Through these various changes we have created a nutritionally dense menu, which will give your children a nutritional edge during their crucial development years. We hope that you and your children enjoy our menu at Newstead!