Thrive Kitchen Policies and Procedures

Hi, everyone. Welcome to thrive Kitchen policies and procedures.

I, Anna Davis and I'm the kitchen director and gardens manager at Thrive.

We're just going to talk about some quick

things having to do with the Thrive kitchen.

So the order of priority for eating at mealtime derive his first kids,

then volunteers, interns, staff and then kids seconds, which means,

especially in the fall and spring semesters intern should always bring a packed

dinner or snack with them to work because dinner is not guaranteed.

Um,

in the summer we try to feed our interns and staff because

the day is longer and there's not as much of an opportunity,

um, for interns to eat because it's pretty fast paced,

um, during the summer, but especially during fall and spring semesters,

Please bring your own dinner.

Um, and just always to thrive. I would recommend bringing a snack.

Um,

next, we're going to talk about dessert.

Dessert doesn't happen very often. It drive.

It usually will happen once a month when a donor brings a birthday cake for

Kid's birthday month or birthdays during the month of December,

January or whatever.

Um, so when it does happen,

please make a reasonable expectation for kids like Finish your vegetables,

eat at least half of your bowl of chili etcetera.

Your site director will often

make that recommendation and just expect

or be firm with kids on that because it's

a great way to motivate them to try something.

Um

uh.

An exception to that rule is if there is a

birthday cake and it is the child's birthday month,

they don't have to finish their vegetables or finish their protein or anything.

They can just go ahead and have their birthday cake,

since that's a special circumstance.

Next, we're going to talk about

serving meals. Serving guidelines.

Be prepared for pushback at mealtime, especially for newer campuses.

I've noticed that kids have a harder time eating the food that thrive.

Just remember that food exposure is a process, and, um, our.

It is very normal for kids to not like our meals at first, if they're new to thrive,

Um,

kids are used to eating either what their families serve at home,

which is specific to their cultural background or used to eating

what we would consider a kid friendly meal at school.

Um,

so this is a little graphic kind of explaining that

kid food is often easy on the first bite.

But we know that

kid food is the same as adult food, and it just takes time to learn.

Because of strict nutritional guidelines and

standardization and public school lunches,

which do actually prevent real nutrition from occurring in public school meals,

these, uh, school lunches are often left spiced, more uniform,

more predictable and more compartmentalized on plates like food.

Components of a meal are just not touching each other on the plate.

Um,

if we continue to uphold that mold that public school and just have set for Children,

Um, we're conditioning our kids to be picky eaters, so thrive.

Obviously, our goal is to

make sure that our kids are eating nutritious meals,

but also just widening their palates in general.

Um, yeah.

So it's not going to be an easy process,

but thank you for being patient with our kids

as they try things that are unfamiliar with,

um, do. Here's some news. And don't do inquire about real food allergies.

If a kid says I'm allergic to vegetables,

that's probably not a real document documented food allergy.

But if a kid says that they have a peanut allergy that they've been hospitalized for.

That absolutely, is a real food allergy.

So please bring any food allergies that kids have,

um, to my attention, Um, but also just kind of weed out. Maybe what is,

um, a genuine food allergy from just like a

preference problem?

Do treat kids like adults in their capacity to eat adult food.

So, um,

diabetes,

liver problems and thyroid issues in PCOS low energy are all

potential consequences for Children and adults who eat a high,

simple carbon sugar diet.

We are aiming to break this mold.

And, um,

the idea also that kids should eat a meal that

is different from adults is a relatively new one.

I used to go into the history on this, and I'm not gonna do that this time. But

kids naturally creative meals that are high in

calories high in sugar are fried and fatty.

They're getting plenty of these meals at home, um, in school,

and we aim to be different and thrive in the way that we feed our kids,

um,

and provide them with meals that give them

the nutrients that they're missing in their diet.

Um So

we want to set the culinary bar higher from them because America has not done that.

Um, and their school lunches have not done that.

And so that's what we're aiming to do it, Dr.

So treat them like adults in their capacity to rise to that far.

Do you use correct portions for Children?

So this is a graphic that only pertains to toddlers.

We obviously need to feed our kids more food than what this graphic shows.

So don't take this as like an accurate representation of

how much food you should put on a kid's plate.

But in general,

we do think that kids will eat more than what they actually should be eating.

So just be cautious with the amount of food that you're putting

on a kid's play because we don't want to be wasteful.

Um, so this is another graphic to kind of describe that

wasting is serving what you hope that they'll eat and saving is,

uh, putting smaller exposure portions of new foods.

This is also really pertinent to kids who might

be newer program are more skeptical of the food.

Just be cognizant of the amount of food you're putting on each.

Kids played like I said,

Um, next I do not do not change the meal.

So if a kid says I really want the rice and the chicken in a tikka masala, Um,

but I don't want the sauce.

We're still going to put the sauce on their meal. Um,

because that's a preference issue that's not a real allergy.

And, um, our policy at Drive is to not change a mule

based on the preference of the child.

There's three reasons for this one.

If you make an accommodation for one kid,

everyone will then want to be accommodated, and that's just really chaotic.

Also, consistency is super key in terms of food exposure.

So if you serve the same meal to every kid,

um, and one kid tries it and likes it, then other kids will,

um, try it and maybe try it and like it to you. But if you omit

a vegetable or something, for example, for one kid, um,

then all the other kids will want the same thing to happen

with their meal because they don't want to try the vegetable either.

Um, also, we're on a tight budget,

and we want to make sure that everything we're

making for these kids actually will get mostly consumed.

Um, so, yeah,

this is just a way for us to guarantee that

were that all of our money is going towards the kids

and feeding them.

Um, do not critique the meal in front of kids.

There are definitely mistakes that happen.

And real concerns that can can occur about a meal. But

it is not a good idea to say those critiques in front of the kids.

This will only make them biased against the meal and not want to try it.

Bring any real concerns to me or to your site director out of the year shot of our kids

if you have them

next,

we're going to talk about site director and program assistant responsibilities.

So some of these are only pregnant to program or side directors.

Um, but I'm just gonna explain our system real quick. So long.

Still in Park Ridge sites pick up their meals from the kitchen. Um,

around dinner time.

Um, probably like, 30 minutes before 15 minutes before,

and serve at their respective campuses.

So, um, it is P the P s responsibility,

especially at long steel campuses to come get

their food from the kitchen and serve it.

Played it. Do all of that

Park Ridge. Usually we have a runner,

either a site director or some kind of volunteer.

He will come get that meal, and it will still be your job as the P A to serve that meal.

But you aren't responsible necessarily for driving unless

your site director tells you you are,

um,

for a new hotel and paper mill,

your site director will pick up the pre made meal the day before or sorry,

the morning of program and your responsibility is to

serve and clean up.

Um,

it's not your responsibility to come get

the meal unless your site director tells you

so, Um, and then this is just a reminder for site directors.

Please try to remember to bring back any hot hands, instant pot bowls,

instant pot stock pots the next morning and then p.

A s.

It's also your responsibility to do water,

so make sure that those water pictures or whatever

thing that holds your water at your campus

is filled up and chilled and ready to go for the meal.

Next, we're going to talk about the policy on use of kitchen materials.

My policy is don't use the kitchen unless you ask way ahead of time.

Um, and you have a valid reason,

um, for using it.

Please do not use any kitchen materials,

especially for your elective or anything like that.

Um, come if, Like, if you're trying to make muffins for your

elective,

bring mixing bowls. Bring measuring cups. All of those things.

All your ingredients from your own home.

Do not try to borrow materials from the kitchen.

And that's because we use those to make

the meal every day at thrive, we use our oven every day.

Um, there are rare circumstances in which I'll let it slide, but,

um, please remember not to use the kitchen or rely on the kitchen for your elective.

Also, just be respectful

of, um, whatever you do use if I do let you use something, um,

make sure to turn the oven off after you've made cookies.

Um, make sure to wash and put away, um,

anything that you use that I allow you to if there

is some kind of emergency where you need to use something,

Um, yeah,

and that is it. Thank you so much for joining me for policies and procedures.

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