Snack time is a big deal around Bright IDEAS. Ask your children. We provide daily snack to sometimes as many as 90 children. Wow. We take the snack business very seriously at BI. We found that providing a “healthy” snack just wasn’t enough; a half apple or banana without a protein or grain to balance the natural sugar didn’t seem to bode well at homework time 20 minutes later; the children on the whole seemed to have more difficulty focusing, as opposed to days when we had something more sustainable, like a granola mix or when we paired cheese with the fruit.
Last year, Amanda Silverman, professional baker (and opera singer) and our BI snack czar (among other things), handled the snack for our entire community at BI and often provided fresh baked banana, pumpkin or apple bread for the children. And oh, the staff got to partake in the deliciousness too. The kids loved it SO much there were always more than a few hoovering round the snack area like little crows, waiting for “seconds” to be called, even though we were always fair in passing out “seconds.” I guess they just didn’t want to get too far away and miss out on the call.
Since we have two students who have severe (life threatening) tree nuts allergies, we don’t serve nuts of any kind. Add to that our efforts to provide a balanced, healthy snack at a reasonable price, and oh, let’s not forget something the children will actually EAT, well that does limit us a bit. We always take into consideration other dietary restrictions our children have- gluten, dairy, etc and if our snack for the day excludes them, then we will provide an alternative.
This year, Amanda and I (Tracey), are splitting up the snack quest 2 & 2. And on Thursdays, Amanda and a small group of children will make Friday’s snack for everyone. This week they made frozen raspberry yogurt pops. They certainly disappeared on Friday. Another hit this week was Chick Pea Popcorn though I added salt and a little more oil to this recipe ( I think Dr Oz, could use just a little fat, don’t you?). Chickpeas are a good inexpensive source of protein and almost everyone (on the big kid’s playground with me) was willing to try it. That is something we will put in our regular rotation. Some other past popular snack offerings have been:
- cheese and fruit
- edamame
- kale chips
- Amanda’s bread
- Cheerios mix (raisins, granola chunks, Cheerios)
- yogurt topped with Cheerios or granola
- frozen yogurt pops
- popcorn (popped on the stove)
- turkey sandwiches
We are always open to new snack ideas- we can get in a rut. And you are always welcome to send your child with his/her own snack as long as it doesn’t have nuts in it!
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It is more than just a “snack”. It’s a labor of love from Amanda and Tracey. I would love to see a Bright IDEAS snack recipes cook book.