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Increasing Food Expenditure in Long Day-care by an Extra $0.50 per Child/Day Would Improve Core Food Group Provision

Ros Sambell1, Ruth Wallace1, Johnny Lo1

  • 1School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Perth 6027, Australia.

Nutrients
|April 5, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Increasing food expenditure in long day-care (LDC) services by $0.50 per child/day significantly improves compliance with Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADG). This finding supports better nutrition for children in early childhood education and care.

Area of Science:

  • Nutrition Science
  • Public Health
  • Early Childhood Education

Background:

  • Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are integral to Australian family life, with 1.4 million children attending in 2019.
  • Limited research exists on the financial aspects of food provision within these services.
  • Ensuring nutritional adequacy in ECEC settings is crucial for child development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the cost of food provided to children in long day-care (LDC) services.
  • To identify expenditure levels associated with meeting Australian Dietary Guideline (ADG) recommendations.
  • To provide evidence-based recommendations for food expenditure to support compliance.

Main Methods:

  • A cross-sectional audit of LDC services in metropolitan Perth was conducted.
  • Raw ingredients for meals (morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea) were weighed and costed using 2017 online supermarket prices.
  • Multivariable analysis was used to assess the relationship between food expenditure and ADG compliance.

Main Results:

  • Food expenditure per child per day ranged from $1.17 to $4.03, averaging $2.00.
  • A $0.50 increase in daily food expenditure per child was associated with a fourfold increase in the likelihood of meeting over 50% of ADG recommendations across four core food groups (p = 0.03).

Conclusions:

  • Food expenditure significantly impacts the ability of LDC services to meet nutritional guidelines.
  • An average increase of $0.50 per child per day in food expenditure is recommended to enhance food provision compliance.
  • This study provides valuable data for planning nutritionally balanced menus in ECEC settings.

Keywords:
budgetchildcarediscretionaryearly childhood education and carefood groupslong day-careoil equivalentssodiumsugar

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