Weekly menu for nurseries and daycare

Parents who read every line

With babies and toddlers, the menu isn’t a formality. Families check it to:

• Know what their child ate, and how much, alongside what the key worker tells them.
• Plan the evening meal without repeating lunch.
• See which foods appear, especially if their child hasn’t tried them yet or has an allergy.

That’s why the menu should arrive before the week starts and leave no room for doubt.

What to put on the sheet

• The nursery’s name and a heading: “This week’s menu”.
• The week: “Week of 19–23 October”. MenuDesign fills in the current week, or the text you type.
• One column per day, with main course, pudding and snack in the same order.
• What’s served every day, once: “Water and milk”.
• The allergens of each dish, with their key.
• The afternoon snack and any notices, in the footnote.

Simple food, simple names

At nursery the food is simple, and the names should be too:

• Say what’s in it: “Butternut squash purée” tells parents more than “Vegetable purée”. If the purée changes every week, name the main vegetable.
• Name the fish and the meat: “Salmon with potato”, “Chicken with carrot”.
• No made-up names. Children don’t read the menu; their parents do, and they want to know what each dish is.
• Short names. On landscape A4 each day has a narrow column: two to five words per dish is ideal.

Which foods appear each week, and how often, is decided by the rules where you are and the people who plan your menus, with each child’s health professional’s advice where there is any. In England, the EYFS requires meals, snacks and drinks to be healthy, balanced and nutritious, and from September 2025 providers must have regard to the Department for Education’s nutrition guidance for early years. In the US, many daycares follow the USDA’s Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) meal patterns and their state’s licensing rules. The menu only has to tell the story well.

Babies and toddlers: different textures

In the same nursery, babies who are weaning eat alongside three-year-olds who eat almost as they do at home. There are two ways to show it:

• One menu, if the dishes are the same and only the texture changes (puréed, mashed, chopped). Say so in the footnote.
• One sheet per room, if the babies have their own dishes. Duplicate the menu and change the heading (“Babies’ menu”) and the dishes.

New foods

Many nurseries ask families to try new foods at home first, to see how the child gets on with them. If that’s your policy, the weekly menu is the perfect tool: sent in advance, it lets families see what’s coming and warn you if their child hasn’t tried something yet. Add the reminder to the footnote or to the message you send with the menu.

Allergens: the most sensitive part

A nursery that serves food has the same duty as any kitchen to give information on the allergens it uses: the 14 allergens in the UK, the nine major allergens in the US. Allergies to milk and eggs are also common in young children.

• Numbers or icons next to each dish, with the key at the bottom. Icons are recognised at a glance; numbers take less room.
• Check bought-in products: yoghurts, biscuits, bread or ready-made stock. Their spec sheet is what counts, and it changes.
• Adapted menus on a separate sheet, with the diet in the heading: “Dairy-free menu”.
• No children’s names on sheets put up by the entrance. A child’s allergy is health information: the list belongs in the kitchen and the room, not the corridor.

For the kitchen, an allergen matrix covering every recipe means you don’t rely on memory.

The afternoon snack

It matters almost as much as lunch, especially for children who stay late. If it barely changes, it goes in the footnote. If it’s different every day, add it as a fourth line in the column, with its allergens if it has any: a slice of sponge cake contains gluten, eggs and milk.

Printing and sending

• At the entrance and on each room’s door: PDF on landscape A4.
• To families: the PDF or a PNG or JPG image, through the nursery app, email or the parents’ group. You send it; MenuDesign doesn’t send anything on its own.
• For the fridge at home: many families print it. A white-background design uses little ink.
• Families who speak other languages: MenuDesign can add a second language under each dish.

Design

The template uses the Memphis style, with pop colours and shapes: cheerful and still easy to read. Notebook, like handwriting in an exercise book, is another friendly option. Whichever you choose, make sure the type is readable: the colour is for decoration, not for the dishes. If you also make a kids’ menu for a restaurant, the writing tips are the same.

Make it with MenuDesign

Open the nursery menu template, change the nursery’s name, the dishes and the snack, mark the allergens and download the PDF or the image for families. Free, no sign-up and saved in your browser.