MEALS
At Magic Garden we have an in-house chef and kitchen team who use the freshest ingredients daily. We offer vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan options. Our four seasonal menu plans have been designed with input from a nutritionist, our teaching team, parents and our students. Each seasonal menu follows a four-weekly repeating cycle, to help children familiarize the foods we serve.
All main meals come with a variety of side dishes designed to be finger food, tempting the fussiest eaters. We use fresh vegetables grown from our garden when possible, and other fresh fruit and vegetables in season. At a minimum we offer two non-starchy vegetable servings and two fruit servings a day. We serve a minimum of five different vegetables every week, making sure we have a variety of colours and textures in the fruit and vegetables.
Meals are served family-style at the table. Mealtimes are an important ritual for our children, and are another opportunity to teach social skills and manners as we continue the learning journey with your child.
Morning and afternoon teas include a variety of healthy snacks, fruit and water. Snacks are based on whole, less processed foods and include sandwiches, freshly baked savoury and fruit muffins, and hummus with vegetable sticks. Water is available with all meals and children over two years have access to a water fountain throughout the day.
The Infant and Toddler room offer raw soft fruit and vegetable pieces or mashed e.g. kiwifruit, watermelon, banana and poached or steamed smaller chunks of firmer fruit and vegetables as finger foods e.g. apple, pear, carrot, kumara, pumpkin, potato.