First in Sector: Tops Day Nurseries Introduces Game-Changing Menu for Children
Tops Day Nurseries, an award-winning day nursery chain with over 30 nurseries across the South and Southwest, including 12 in Dorset, is excited to announce the launch of its innovative Game Dishes, designed to captivate young taste buds while providing unmatched nutrition and aligning with their sustainability mission and ethos. They are among the first in its sector to make the move and put wild meat on its menu.
Working in collaboration with Eat Wild, the development board for all wild meat in the UK, Tops Day Nurseries has developed five different wild meat meals which will be incorporated into the nursery’s menu. Across the 32 sites, the children will be provided with wild meat meals twice within a three-week cycle, totalling 3,000 wild meat meals per month.
The inspiration behind this new menu comes from a strong belief in the nutritional value and benefits of game meat. As stated by Pete Ttofis, Catering Manager at Tops Day Nurseries, “Having worked in the hospitality industry for so long, I had always been aware of how delicious wild foods were, especially game. The variety and how natural it is always appealed to me as I knew it hadn’t been subjected to courses of intense growth hormones or antibiotic treatment and is left to roam freely eating natural foods within its natural environment, because after all, we are what we eat, right?”
After a bit of exploring, it was discovered that the nutritional value of game was excellent, and contained less fat, as much protein and nutrients like vitamin B-12, iron and zinc as typical household meats like beef, chicken, lamb, and pork. By switching to game meat this contributes to the protection of diverse species in their natural environment, aligning with Tops Day Nurseries sustainability mission and ethos.
To familiarise the children with new flavours we have incorporated wild foods into familiar dishes. Dishes such as venison bolognaise and garlic bread will appear on our winter menu.
“We believe that giving wild foods a try and experimenting with our food diversity is something we should be exploring,” Pete added. “Food should be fun, exciting, new, and delicious!”
Leon Challis-Davies, Culinary Director at Eat Wild who is leading the project says, “There are lots of reasons why getting wild and sustainable meat onto school menus is so important, I could talk about them for hours.
First and foremost, though, it’s so important that we get the younger generation to eat more nutritional and vitamin-rich food to help them develop. Wild meat is not only healthier, but it’s also more sustainable than what we consume from our current meat-producing sector. It’s much more flavoursome too. For the countryside community in particular, this is a huge win, and we hope to take it to the next level and introduce wild meat into higher education and beyond.”
Tops Day Nurseries is dedicated to nurturing children’s growth and well-being while continuously exploring innovative ways to offer them the best possible start in life. The Game menu is the latest addition to their commitment to providing top-quality nutrition, and they look forward to welcoming children to try these exciting new dishes.
For more information about Tops Day Nurseries, please visit their website at https://www.topsdaynurseries.co.uk/about-tops/
You can also view their famous menus and read some of their delicious recipes, served throughout their Tops settings here.