Press Room

Nourishing with the Brain in Mind — Professional Development for Cooks in Early Childhood Settings
by Valerie Rhomberg

Three-year-old Sarah likes to eat only meat at one meal, only vegetables at the next; two-year-old Andras would be happy to eat macaroni and cheese, and nothing else. Sam won’t eat a fish casserole but will gladly sink her teeth into fish sticks, green beans and carrots if they are served separately on her plate. Is there anything unusual about these children? Realistically, their culinary preferences will be familiar to any staff, including the cook, involved in eating experiences taking place in child care settings. What might it take to diminish scenarios such as these?

The Cooks’ Challenge
Getting young children in early learning environments to eat well-balanced and varied meals can be quite a challenging task, especially from the perspective of the person planning and cooking the meal, but it can also be one of the most satisfying. Appropriate eating habits set the foundation for a child’s healthy development. As with any challenge, an informed, knowledgeable approach helps when trying to decide what practices could bring about the best results.

Who are those involved in decision-making and practice for mealtime? This will vary from setting to setting. This article focuses on the cook. Keep in mind that in many centres the cook is responsible for, plans (with a supervisor or nutritionist’s approval), prepares and presents the meals. As well, the cook often is involved with children as meals are eaten.

The cook’s task is awesome! Further, brain research data seems to indicate that including or not including certain foods could impact healthy brain development, from both physical and emotional perspectives. Thus, children’s over-all healthy development is at stake. Are today’s child care cooks well-prepared to consider such information when planning and presenting their meals?

From Past to Present
Many years ago, part of my journey into early childhood education included a position as the cook/assistant teacher in a preschool/school-age care setting. At that time, the menu-planning emphasis was to follow the advice set out in the Canada Food Guide. As long as the meals reflected the Guide and the foods were “safe” and liked by the children, my menus were not questioned! No mention was ever made about which foods might be considered over others, which meals could foster an inclusive atmosphere and which specific foods should be available on a daily basis.

My interest in and concern for the nutritional needs of young children dates back to this position. As I pursued other work and education relating to young children’s development, children’s healthy eating remained a dormant issue. It began to awaken when, as coordinator of an early childhood training program, I worked in the development, planning and provision of professional development to the early childhood community. Thinking back to my days as a cook in a child care centre, and the lack of workshops or courses addressing the specific needs of cooks in these settings, and keeping in mind my studies on the brain and on diversity, I investigated a professional development idea that related to cooks.

A cook could play a tremendously important role in child care settings, laying the nutritional foundation for children’s optimal development. The decision to pursue this idea further was strengthened as I began to hear from cooks and centre supervisors that, aside from the workshops offered by local health units, there seemed to be little or no professional development opportunities for cooks that offered current knowledge, and that supported and addressed needs specific to their role on a team — one of many people responsible for children’s healthy development.

Professional Development for Cooks
The result was a “Cooks in Child Care” certificate course launched in spring 1996. The course has been delivered throughout the city of Toronto and in other Ontario locations, such as Thunder Bay and Kenora.

The course is designed to provide practical and realistic knowledge essential to meet both the Canada Food Guide and legislative requirements. An additional objective is to introduce the skills necessary for other various roles a cook may take on — managing children’s behaviours appropriately, and managing circumstances that demonstrate an understanding of child development when relieving other child care staff. Strategies that enable the development of positive interpersonal communication skills are explored. Menus for all age groups that reflect understanding the importance of menu-planning within a nutritional, developmental, cultural, inclusive and brain-research-based context are examined and developed. Exemplary practices for the cook in relation to supporting children’s overall development and behaviour are emphasized throughout.

Linking Learning to Practice — Some Examples
We know, for example, that water plays a major role in the functioning of all body systems, but did you know that the brain and nerve cells have specific requirements? Inadequate levels of water can diminish optimal conditions for learning (Tortora & Anagnostakos, 1990). Water also keeps the air sacs of the lungs moist so that oxygen can dissolve, enter the bloodstream and travel to the brain (Hannaford, 1995). Learning requires adequate levels of oxygen for our brains to decode, process and store information.

Thus, one of the considerations for cooks would be to ensure that water is served with every meal, including snacks, and that this is reflected on the menu plan. Not only that, but water should be available to children on a continuous basis and in such a fashion that children can help themselves. Having learned this in the course sessions, the role of the cook could now be as an advocate for serving water, if this practice is not part of the cook’s place of employment. In order to acquire some comfort with an “advocacy” role, the course provides practical communication sessions.

Fuelling healthy minds means understanding nutrients, their sources and their role in brain functioning. Studying this information allows the cook to analyze the menu plan to ensure that fat, protein, iron, etc. are present in meals in desirable combinations and concentrations for optimal effect on the nervous system and on memory performance (Garrison & Somer,1995). Preparation of meals is another important factor, because meals lose their nutrient quality if too long a period of time exists between preparing and serving the meal.

In the context of inclusion and diversity, what about serving vegetarian and dishes from a variety of other cultures? What about dishes that reflect specific beliefs? Does the menu plan contain these on a regular basis and in a way that is nutritionally sound? Is this important? Course participants begin to realize that preparing such meals enhances emotional well-being in children whose families cook such dishes. In turn, this expands other children’s learning and taste buds for foods they may not have been exposed to in their own families. This broadens their learning about the world beyond their own and makes the unfamiliar familiar. This eventually leads to respect for differences in all its many forms (Hall & Rhomberg, 1995).

The Future
Those who believe that the role of the cook is easy would quickly change their opinion after taking part in sessions addressing the above issues! Yet these are only a few of the challenges today’s cooks face for which practical solutions are offered in this course. Beyond the knowledge and awareness participants gain, one of the most beneficial outcomes for cooks is empowerment. A professional development venue exists for them. Their work is valued.

The expectations and the knowledge-base a cook needs to follow through with excellent practice in an early years setting today have surely increased tremendously from when I was cast in the role of cook! Now, professional development such as the “Cooks in Child Care” course will enable cooks who serve young children in the 21st century to “nourish with the brain in mind” and to positively deal with behaviours and eating preferences. It will give them observation skills that support children’s development as it pertains to eating and as it pertains to the enjoyment of eating.

The most satisfying outcome of professional development for early childhood cooks would be for the scenarios described at the beginning of this article to become a thing of the past. The informed and knowledgeable cook would design menus based on children’s age, culture and development, and would ensure that interactions during those mealtime experiences support a sound body and a sound mind — complete healthy development!

Valerie Rhomberg is a licensing specialist at the Ministry of Community and Social Services, Toronto region office. She is also a faculty member at the School of Child and Family Studies, Canadian Mothercraft in Toronto. She is co-chair of the professional development committee of the AECEO. Over the past 20 years, she has held many positions in child care, and has written numerous articles and a book. She sits on the advisory board of the Neurodevelopmental Research Project. © CCCF

References

Garrison, R., & Somer, E. (1995). The Nutrition Desk Reference. New Canaan, CT: Keats Publishing.

Moffatt, M.E., Longstaffe, S., Besant, J., & Dureski, C. (1994). Journal of Pediatrics.125: 527-534.

Morley, R., & Lucas, A. (1997). Nutrition and Cognitive Development. British Medical Bulletin. 53(1)123-134.

Hall, N., & Rhomberg, V. (1995). The Affective Curriculum: Teaching the Anti-bias Approach to Young Children. Toronto, Canada: Nelson Publishing.