Parents/USDA Agree: Offer Organic Food

[hope]

I buy as much organic food as I can afford. I make my own baby food. All meals are filled with fruit and veggies and made from scratch. I am not on the food program. I charge more for this service. Many of the daycares by me serve ham and cheese sandwiches on white bread with chips kinda meals. I serve home made veggie burgers with broccoli and carrot sticks. Parents are willing to pay me a little more for a home made organic hot meal.

[SilverSabre25]

I was going to argue that making your own baby food was less nutritious than store bought (unless you use organic vegetables, then maybe). THEN, I remember you are in California. Here in WI, our produce is picked before it's ripe (for the most part) and then funky things are done to it so that it's at it's "peak" when it ends up in the grocery store. Unless, of course, we buy it from a farmer's market.

I remember the vegies and fruit in CA from my visits. SO jealous!

You can do it from frozen then. frozen has just about as many nutrients as fresh, and isn't overly processed like canned.

I suspect that commercial baby food tastes like sh*t is because they boil the veggie into oblivion before pureeing it.

[sarah33]

thanks ladies!

I decided to charge $20 a month for a prep fee. By the time I ran to the grocery store, found recipes, cooked, pureed and bagged the food...it was going on 6 hours. I am not going to charge for the food, but I am going to charge for my time. The parents instantly agreed - no fuss at all. I think they want organic homemade baby food for the kids...but they are very busy as working parents. Since I have two 8 month-old babies, that turns out to $40 a month. I may continue it when they get older than one, but it may be more expensive. I am going to add in more organic food to the older kids meals - mostly the produce. The milk is just way too expensive at $6 a gallon...but I may change my mind in a couple of months. I can definitely tell the food tastes better, and it really helps set me apart from other home daycares in the area. I bought the re-usable pouches and I actually used the "jello shot" glasses because they are exactly 2 ounces, and it is easy to twist the food out after it has frozen. My husband thought that was hilarious! ::

[BabyMonkeys]

You can get great deals on organic produce if you shop around. Aldi even has some organic produce that is about the same price (or less) as regular produce at other stores. You can buy frozen organic produce really reasonably priced too.

[Jack Sprat]

I buy organic for both daycare and our family. Like another poster said my food program check covers the cost of food and then some.