Why Preschools Should Provide Food for Their Kids

In the modern educational landscape, the decision to include a food program for all students in preschools and daycare centers isn't just a matter of convenience—it's a strategic move towards sustainability, parental satisfaction, and, in many cases, compliance with state regulations. Top brands like Primrose, Bright Horizons, and Guidepost Montessori use Ordo to provide food service to all students.

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Here’s why providing food in your preschool program is essential:

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Parents demand food at their preschool

Parents won’t send their kid to a school without a food program, and in our experience 98% of families choose to use the school program when it’s available and bundled in tuition, as compared to 10-20% when parents need to opt-in and pay on top of that. Families are looking to preschools for efficient solutions where their children’s nutritional needs are met without the hassle of daily meal prep. By providing food in your center, you can make your parents happy and compete with preschools that already provide food for their children.

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In many states, it’s the law.

You are required to offer food service in California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. Each state can also have differing regulations for the level of food service, governing anything from nutritional requirements to the amount of food. Ordo complies with all local laws in the states that we operate in and is available nationwide, so centers in any state can use our program.

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Leveraging federal programs for free food

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In 2024, many public preschool and daycare programs have free food for families, sponsored by the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). The federal program offers an excellent opportunity to provide meals that are subsidized, making it easier to include food in your program offering for families. If your center doesn’t participate in these programs, you likely need to bundle food into your program anyways because it's free at many other preschools. Ordo has CACFP compliant menus, ensuring that whether your center participates in federal programs or not, all students have access to high-quality, nutritious meals.

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Providing food for all of your children is more sustainable

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Running a food program independently involves significant fluctuations— in order rates, enrollment, and even staff retention, particularly chefs. If families order individually for their children, orders can and likely will vary quite a bit throughout the year, which can make servicing the center difficult for chefs and potentially result in them leaving. Losing service during the school year can be quite disruptive for centers. Providing food for all students and having the school order for them fosters a more sustainable operational model, especially multi-unit owners that need to focus on scaling their business and serving families vs. hiring, training, and staffing chefs.

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What Ordo can provide for your center

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Ordo delivers fresh meals daily that are prepared from scratch, even our applesauce and muffins! We’ve designed them for children, with appropriate portion sizes and the right type of food. Preschools can place their orders up until the weekend before, which helps with variable enrollment week-to-week. Each day of the week has a different menu item, which can also be customized to specific dietary needs and allergies. For larger centers (100+ students), Ordo provides two meal options per day.

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We can provide food at all mealtimes: breakfast, lunch, AM/PM snacks, and supper.

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How to work with Ordo

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We’ve designed our operations to be as efficient as possible so preschools can offer food at affordable rates for families. Our food is delivered tray style to reduce packaging costs, where staff can then use disposable packaging and pass out the meals.

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Our chefs deliver meals to centers once every day (to be coordinated with the preschool), with driving routes for centers with multiple locations. We have a minimum order of 42 meals per day, which helps with program sustainability. Additionally, preschools are required to serve all students–except infants.

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Preschools and daycare centers around the country partner with Ordo so they never have to worry about food again. If you’re interested, please reach out to our school partnerships team here.

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