Where Mealtime Equals Love - and Learning
At Olive Tree, our mission is to provide a high quality early childhood experience to every child. We provide a safe, caring, and nurturing environment to present opportunities for children to grow and develop as lifelong learners. This Child Development program examines the needs of the children, families and the community we serve. Our Program has an important role in shaping their social, emotional, physical and intellectual development of young children.
You want your child to eat well—growing to become happy, healthy, and active. We couldn’t agree more. That’s why Olive Tree provides nutritious meals and snacks to meet the needs of rapidly growing bodies and minds. Based on the California Education of Department regulations, we don't serve juice (too much sugar), fried foods, and sugary snacks like graham crackers. Instead, our meals and snacks include versions of kid-favorites made with healthier ingredients, like whole grains, proteins (to keep bellies full), plenty of fruits and vegetables, and low-fat, hormone-free milk.
At Olive Tree, nutrition is about more than just food on a plate. It’s an important part of our educational model. Even our two-year-old students set the table with their friends, practice “please” and “thank you,” and serve themselves food from big bowls. (We don’t mind a little mess!)
Called "family-style dining," this approach fosters an I-can-do-it-myself mindset and builds confidence while placing love on the table, along with good food. In other words, at Olive Tree, mealtime creates strong classroom communities. We hope you’ll join us for lunch with your kids anytime. We love it when families share a meal with us!
These adventurous dishes encourage even the most stubborn chicken-finger and French-fry lovers among our kids to give unfamiliar foods and flavors a try. But do they try it? You bet! Our teachers and chefs do a masterful job of introducing the wonderful world of flavors to children and their developing palates, and we’ve made sure our new recipes are kid-approved by testing them at select centers first.
At Olive Tree, the learning doesn’t end at lunchtime, and our approach to nutrition is as thoughtful as our approach to reading, the arts, and everything else we teach. We’re proud of that! After all, it takes a community of caring adults to raise a healthy eater!
