If you run a childcare centre or preschool in Sydney, you know that mealtime is often the most hectic part of the day. It’s a huge task to balance the needs of a baby trying their first solids with a fussy six-year-old, all while keeping track of strict allergy rules. At Mini Meals, we believe that giving children the best food should be the easiest part of your day. We handle the cooking so you can focus on the children in your care.
What do we offer to childcare catering?
Our team has been part of the Sydney childcare catering community since 1998. We’re a small, boutique business with a child-first approach to everything we do, providing healthy, delicious, and easy-to-prepare childcare catering meals to childcare centres and early learning centres across the wider Sydney region.
We provide fresh, authentic daycare catering meals that help you save time at a competitive price. Our childcare catering menus are full of different colours and textures to make sure every child finds something they love to eat.
Is Mini Meals right for you?
We love partnering with centres that value freshness, safety, and being open about what goes into their childcare catering. We help:
- Childcare, daycare, and early learning/education centres located in the Greater Sydney region.
- Customers who want fresh childcare catering meals that are never frozen.
- Customers who need Halal-certified options and safe allergy controls.
- Customers looking for competitively priced childcare catering with free delivering for centres ordering more than 20 lunch meals per day.
If your regular cook is away or sick, we also offer relief catering on a weekly basis. This ensures the children never miss a delicious and nutritionally-appropriate meal.
Our team cooks every meal in our childcare catering menus fresh daily. We never use artificial flavours, colours, or preservatives that might take away from the nutritional value of the food.
What’s on our daycare food catering menus?
Our meals are designed by chefs and approved by our in-house nutritionists. We make sure every bite in our childcare catering menus meets the NSW Munch & Move and Caring for Children guidelines.
We use a four-week seasonal rotation for our meals. This means the children get to try new things and never get bored. Using Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter cycles also helps us use the best seasonal ingredients to stay within your budget.
To make things simple, we offer full transparency. You’ll get a list of common ingredients we use, which helps give your centre and the parents peace of mind. You can choose a lunch-only plan or a full package that includes morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and fruit.
When it comes to fruit, we deliver a full week of whole fruit every Monday to make sure it stays as fresh as possible.
Keeping children safe
We provide healthy meals that are approved by in-house dietitians. This includes the right nutrients for infants. Our official safety certifications mean we always work to the highest standards of health and safety.
Following the guidelines
The NSW Health Caring for Children manual is the gold standard for the childcare catering industry. While these rules are great, checking your menu against them every day can feel overwhelming when you’re also busy with the kids and the books.
We’ve designed our service to bridge that gap. We take care of the cooking so you can focus on what you do best.
Managing allergies and special diets
Managing allergies is our number one safety priority. We know how important it is to follow strict rules to prevent cross-contamination.
Our childcare catering meals are nut-free, egg-free, pork-free, and sesame-seed-free. By removing these high-risk ingredients from our meals, you get an extra layer of safety for your centre.
Our menus are also inclusive. We offer vegetarian and Halal-certified options. We can also help with special requests, including:
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
- Vegan options
We work closely with you to make sure the individual needs of every child are met.
How to get started
Starting a partnership with us is a simple four-step process.
- Tell us about the kids in your centre. We start with a chat to learn about your centre. We’ll talk about the ages of the children, your daily numbers, and any special dietary needs, and from there work on a pricing and service structure that suits your centre.
- The taste test. We want you to be 100% sure about our food. We provide free samples for your team to try so you can experience the Mini Meals difference yourself.
- Sign up. Start receiving your daily deliveries Monday to Friday.
- Enjoy. Our dietician-approved childcare food menus are designed for four week cycles so you don’t have to decide what to order. Our four-weekly menus move with the seasons to keep food interesting and appealing in different climates.
Ready to partner with Mini Meals?
From our safety standards to our vibrant multicultural flavours, we’re ready to bring a child-first approach to your centre.
If you’re ready to start, contact us today to book your call and request a free sample pack. We’re ready to provide reliable, personalised service to your centre. Let us take the cooking off your plate.
* Please keep in mind that we close during the Christmas and New Year period to give our hardworking chefs a well-earned break.