Mini Professional Development 1: Understanding the Menu planning guidelines for long day care

Jodie McGough: Thank you for taking the time to join us and learn more about this mini professional development session, and how you can use it within a Cook’s Network.

Today, we’re going to run through everything related to Mini PD Session 1, which focuses on the Menu Planning Guidelines. This session is being recorded and will be made available as a training video for health promoters who are unable to attend today’s live webinar.

Just a bit of housekeeping before we get into it:
Please pop your questions in the chat as we go—we’ll have time at the end to go through them. Also, if you could keep yourself on mute during the session, that would be appreciated.

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we are meeting today. I’m speaking to you from the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Boon Wurrung Peoples of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people joining us today.

You’re also welcome to share the land you’re joining from—feel free to pop it in the chat or include it next to your name in Teams.

A quick reminder about who HEAS is and what we do:
The Healthy Eating Advisory Service is delivered by Nutrition Australia (Victoria Division), with support from the Victorian Government. We offer free support to organisations to help them provide and promote healthier food and drink options.

In early childhood, HEAS supports long day care, kindergartens, family day care, and outside school hours care to promote nutritious foods that support children’s growth and development.

We provide a variety of resources, including the Menu Planning Guidelines for Long Day Care, information on managing allergies and intolerances, online training modules, and a collection of recipes suited to various dietary needs.

FoodChecker is our online tool for assessing food, drinks, and menus against government guidelines. It’s especially helpful for planning menus in long day care settings and ensuring compliance with the National Quality Framework.

Our next Cook’s Connect Mini PD session will focus on using FoodChecker, followed by another session on fussy eating—so stay tuned!

Today’s presentation follows on from the Cook’s Connect launch, where we introduced the Cook’s Connect Toolkit—a step-by-step guide and resource kit for establishing a successful Cook’s Network.

A Cook’s Network is a collaborative community where cooks can meet regularly, share knowledge, build skills and confidence, and receive support in meeting menu planning guidelines.

Our goal is to support you in running a Cook’s Network in your local area, and to provide the right support at the right time.

We’d now love to hear from you about the current status of your Cook’s Network. I’ll pause for a moment to share a poll in the Teams chat—please take a moment to respond.

… [Poll shared and responses gathered]

Great, thank you to everyone who participated. It’s fantastic to see such a range of responses!

We’re now going to walk you through Mini PD Session 1, which focuses on understanding the Menu Planning Guidelines. These sessions are designed to help health promoters host professional development sessions for cooks.

They’ve been co-designed with health promoters and cover the most requested topics. This gives you the tools to become subject matter experts, with resources right at your fingertips.

As mentioned earlier, upcoming sessions will focus on FoodChecker and fussy eating.

This session covers menu planning guidelines for long day care, the five food groups, serving sizes for children, and calculating recipe quantities. We’ll also show you the lesson plan, instructional video content, activity sheets, supporting HEAS resources, discussion prompts, feedback collection tools, and a certificate of completion for cooks.

Let’s walk through how to access all the resources.

Visit the Healthy Eating Advisory Service website. At the top menu, click on “I’m working in…” and choose Early Childhood Services. Scroll down to find Health Promoter Resources and click “Find out more” to access Cook’s Connect information, quick links, and Mini PD Session resources.

The lesson plan is your key document. It includes background information, video links, guided activities, activity and answer sheets, downloadable certificates, and resource links.

The lesson plan outlines session goals, required materials, and time estimates for each component. You can use the guide in person (printed) or digitally—like we’re doing today.

The first video introduces the Menu Planning Guidelines, Australian Dietary Guidelines, National Quality Standards, and the five food groups. These should be included across morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea.

Let’s play a short snippet of the video.

[Video plays – technical troubleshooting occurs]

Thank you for your patience—hopefully the video is now visible and audible.

This video is under 5 minutes long and serves as a great introduction before starting Activity 1.

Activity 1 includes a short explanation of required resources and a sample one-day menu (brought by the cook). Guided questions include: What are the five food groups? How many serves per group per child? What food groups are on your menu?

Have example menus ready in case someone forgets theirs. Encourage open discussion and use the provided answer sheet for support.

The second video explains portion sizes per food group, sample serving visuals, how to calculate quantities based on centre size, and foods to avoid.

Activity 2 uses the cook’s own menu. You’ll need the Ingredient Quantity Guides (for 50–60 and 60–250 children). Use the answer sheet with worked examples. This includes basic maths—review the examples beforehand so you feel confident.

An example is calculating red meat for 80 children. Each child requires 50g, so that’s 4kg total. You’ll check other ingredients similarly using the HEAS resources.

The final video touches on drinks, breakfast and late snacks, baked items, food variety, feeding infants under 12 months, and planning considerations. There’s no formal activity for this video, but it’s a good time to summarise key points and open up for group discussion.

Ask questions such as: What are your biggest challenges with menu planning? How do you currently plan your menu? Have you used the guidelines before? What support would be most helpful?

Cooks really value this time for discussion and connection with their peers.

At the end of your session, provide cooks with the Menu Planning Guidelines (Quick Guide and Full Version), Menu Planning Checklist, Ingredient Quantity Guides, and all relevant worksheets and answer sheets.

These are all downloadable from the HEAS website.

Feedback is essential. Use online tools like MS Forms or SurveyMonkey, or paper forms. HEAS has sample questions, or create your own based on what’s most relevant for your network.

Lastly, editable certificates of completion are available. Add the cook’s name, date, and your organisation’s logo. Encourage cooks to display them at their service.

Jodie McGough: That concludes the formal part of today’s session. Thank you all for prioritising this in your busy schedules. We hope you’re as excited about this Mini PD session as we are!

We’ll now open up the floor for any questions. Feel free to turn on your camera or unmute to speak—or use the chat.

If you’re watching the recording later, please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

And remember: our next Mini PD session will focus on FoodChecker, followed by one on fussy eating—so keep an eye out for those!