At Jigsaws we pride ourselves on providing nutritional homecooked meals in our onsite kitchen. Our Kitchen Supervisor is fully trained in Food preperation and food hygiene.  We are reviewed yearly by the local council Food Hygiene regulator.

We understand the importance placed on nutritional and balanced diets for children and provide: 

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards that early year’s providers must meet to ensure that children learn, develop well and are kept healthy and safe.  From September 2025, the DFE intend to include a new requirement in the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the EYFS that providers ‘should’ have regard to a new publication called the Early Years Foundation Stage Nutrition Guidance. This means providers must take this guidance into account and should follow it unless there is good reason not to. 

Our senior team and kitchen team have worked hard reading through this guidance and adopting its recommendations to meet its objectives.  We have therefore developed new menus to incorporate these changes (these are attached).  We have updated our food and drink policy (attached) and developed a guidance leaflet for those who bring food from home (see attached).

We believe in giving the best start in life for our children. Good nutrition is essential during childhood, as it is a time of rapid growth, development and activity. This is also a vital time for healthy tooth development and prevention of decay. General eating habits and patterns are formed in the first few years of life. Poor nutrition during these years is associated with an increased risk of obesity, hypertension, diabetes and coronary heart disease. Childcare providers therefore have a key role to play in introducing children to a wide variety of foods and establishing a pattern of regular meals and healthy snacks.