I offer care 24/7, so I serve breakfast, am snack, lunch, pm snack, dinner and evening snack. I, as an in-home daycare in Minnesota, am NOT required to have a nutritionist. Licensing didn't seem too picky about what I fed the children either.

I am on the US food program and they are a bit more picky about what I feed the children. Nothing too big of a deal. For example we live in a very rural area and everyone here hunts to fill the freezer, not so much for the sport of it. However, I am not allowed to feed the children any sort of wild game or fish because it wasn't processed at a USDA approved facility. Of course we could take our venison in, pay extra for that, just easier not to feed it to the kids. Once we start raising chickens the dc kids can eat the eggs, but not the poultry, again because we're not a USDA approved butchering facility.

Another one that gets me is that donuts count towards the bread/grain group as an acceptable breakfast and/or snack item on the food program, yet popcorn doesn't qualify. I understand popcorn has very little nutritional value, but personally I'd rather have my own kids eat a handful of popcorn as opposed to a donut. My food program lady did tell me, just because a food doesn't qualify for the program doesn't mean I can't feed it to them. For example, for snack I could offer the kids popcorn, hard cheese and 100% grape juice. I meet the needs with the cheese and the grape juice.

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