With the quality of food becoming an important selling point for every nursery business, settings in Kent are signing up for the services of local catering company Healthy Roots.
Using fresh, seasonal and locally sourced ingredients, the meals are prepared in the company's Ashford kitchen and delivered to nurseries in thermo-sealed hot boxes. The meals can be left in the boxes until they are ready to be served and plated up.
Menus are designed by the company's chef and follow the nutritional guidelines of the Caroline Walker Trust.
Dawn Phelps, who launched Healthy Roots a year ago, says that her service is helping nurseries to give parents the 
reassurance they need that meals are varied and nutritious.
She says, 'We know that parents are becoming more aware of how important it is that their children eat properly and they are more pro-active when it comes to asking nursery managers about what their children are being fed at lunchtime. Our ethos is to create new textures, combinations and flavours. It is fun for us to explore new things, and we love to get feedback from nurseries and children.'
Ms Phelps prepares quarterly surveys for all Healthy Roots customers to find out which dishes the children liked best. 'In our last survey it was Irish Apple Cake, which featured as one of our World Food Day dishes,' she says. 'This month Romania is our chosen country.'
Happy customers include Fledglings Day Nursery, Townsend Montessori and the recently opened First Friends Nursery in the Roko Health Club in Gillingham. Healthy Roots gets the thumbs-up for providing value for money and listening to what nurseries want.
Ms Phelps says that being a 'purist' means that she will never settle for second best. 'If I bought in frozen food it would be cheaper, but I want to use fresh ingredients,' she says. 'At the moment I am packing up 250 portions of rhubarb cookies and preparing asparagus quiche.'
Even nurseries which already have an in-house chef can benefit from Healthy Roots' service. 'Customers can use us to cover for absences and holidays,' says Ms Phelps. 'It's just a case of setting up an agreement with us and letting us know when the meals are required.'
Healthy Roots is now looking to grow beyond Kent. 'It took a while to get our website as we wanted it, and our reputation is now beginning to spread by word of mouth,' says Ms Phelps. 'We are now looking forward to expanding into south London with one of our service partners.'
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