What makes Treehouse Learning Food Program so special?

At Treehouse Learning, we care about your whole child– mind, body and spirit! We also care about what goes into your child, which is why the food we serve is such an important ingredient to the quality of care we provide!

Treehouse Learning’s kitchen is truly the heart of our building; our large kitchen opens to the Big Room, and everyone who walks in our doors is greeted with the delicious smells of the day’s lunch, which is artistically displayed in our front lobby. It comes as no surprise that our head chef, Ms. Mary, first went to art school before becoming a chef; her menu is crafted with creative concoctions designed to nourish children’s bodies, grow their minds, and expand their palates as healthy and adventurous eaters. 

Rather than serve typical “kid’s food” of highly-processed and highly-palatable brown or beige foods, children at Treehouse Learning love Ms. Mary’s fresh and flavorful dishes, full of real ingredients and fresh vegetables. Favorites include “Chicken Caesar salad,” (Ms. Mary’s tip: if you want children to enjoy salad, fill it with surprising crunchy things, like housemade croutons) or Creamy Dreamy Beans, a slow-cooked Great Northern Bean dish served with fresh bread and broccoli, or a zesty garbanzo quinoa veggie salad (Ms. Mary says it’s all about the dressing!).  Even her menu descriptions make your mouth water, like  Southwest Tofu Scramble with “zipppy spiced tofu and peppers” or “Chicken Shawarma, with middle-eastern spiced chicken served on flatbread with cucumbers, tomatoes, and tahini dressing.” Children are exposed to diverse flavors and textures inspired by cuisine around the world, like Cuban Beef Picadillo, Spaghetti Lo-Mein, or Coconut Veggie Curry. 

New menus are written monthly, featuring seasonal ingredients and a diverse cultural inspiration of nutritious and interesting foods. Children are served meals family-style from a set menu, but our snack menu rotates and varies by day. Morning snacks contain a combo of seasonal fresh fruit and protein and/or a whole grain, and afternoon snacks contain a combo of a protein, a crunchy food, fresh fruit or veggies, and whole grains. 

More than just lunch…

Mealtime at Treehouse Learning is an important part of our curriculum and provides important physical, intellectual, and social learning experiences, and is a practical “aid to life.” Children enjoy family-style meals, joined by their teachers, who share a representative portion alongside children and participate in modeling and sharing language, math, and nutritional exchanges. Older children typically self-serve their snacks during a snack period. Children participate in clearing their plates, composting food scraps, and ensuring reusable dishes and utensils are properly cared for. (You can read more about all the learning that happens during family-style meals here).

At Treehouse Learning, we don’t just serve healthy foods, we involve children in growing, learning about, and loving fresh and healthy foods. We participate in the Healthy Eating Active Living program and partner with the Boulder County Health Department for ongoing staff professional development on nutrition-related topics. We also offer parent learning opportunities, like last year’s “Growing Adventerous Eaters” workshop, where a nutritionist from Boulder County Public Health offered a parent learning night on the topic of supporting children to be adventurous eaters, addressing issues such as picky eating and incorporating garden-based nutrition. Like all our parent learning events, this event was free, and we provided food as well as childcare for preschool/ toddlers. 

Each of our playgrounds also has a classroom garden, where children participate in growing fresh fruits and vegetables that are incorporated into Ms. Mary’s menus or enjoyed by the children in tasting opportunities or snacks they prepare. Children, including infants and toddlers, participate in age-appropriate cooking and food activities, and we offer an annual series of in-house field trips partnering with Growing Gardens.  Treehouse Learning also has a local partnership with a small regenerative farm, Hoedown Farm, which shares seasonal veggie bundles with families and raises grass-fed pastured pork. All food scraps at Treehouse Learning are also collected and shared with the flock of chickens and ducks at Hoedown Farm. Although we’re not permitted to share farm eggs with the children, we do give them to our teachers as a small token of appreciation. Children love making the connection that the food they compost goes to local chickens and ducks. Cluck cluck!

What Parents (and Children) think about our Food Program

In our annual family survey conducted in February 2025, 96% of families reported feeling “Very Satisfied” or “Satisfied” with our Treehouse Learning meals, snacks, and food program (which includes classroom gardens, nutritional education, and mealtime experiences.)

Parents expressed appreciation such as “Love that there are vegetarians meals and accommodations made. Super appreciated!” and “The garden is an amazing addition and the kids love getting to plant and harvest their own food.” Multiple families also wished that Ms. Mary would come cook for them at home! Our parents also appreciate that our program includes healthy and nutritious meals and snacks, like this comment: “The food offerings are awesome, and I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about packing a nutritious lunch for my child.”

A few families in the survey asked questions about ingredients in our food, such as this comment: “We as a family are eliminating food dyes and other features of processed foods. We’d like to know a little more about what ingredients are in the prepared foods.” Some families communicated their family food preferences, such as not eating pork or meat at home. 

What sets our food program apart:

• Children engage in hands-on cooking projects, where they are offered opportunities to taste fresh, healthy food that they help prepare
• Each classroom has a playground garden where the children participate in gardening and growing vegetables
• All of our lunches are made from scratch using whole ingredients, and we intentionally design our menu to fill children’s bellies with minimally processed, real food
• We serve minimal amounts of prepared or processed foods. However, some of our snacks do include food that comes in packaging, such as crackers or rice cakes, or fig bars. 
• Morning and afternoon snacks contain fresh fruits or veggies, such as apples, oranges, bananas, tangelos, pears, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, or other seasonal produce.  
• Hummus, salad dressings, dips, granola, and sauces are all housemade
• Cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, and other dairy products are all-natural or organic and raised without the use of growth hormones
• Beginning in April 2025, we’ll begin serving all-natural milk, delivered in glass bottles from local farm Morning Fresh Dairy, where the cows are fed organically-raised non-GMO feed.
• Some of our pork comes from locally sourced grass-fed pigs
• Our kitchen can accommodate and all meals can be modified for food restrictions or preferences, including vegetarian, non-pork options, gluten-free, or meals meeting the needs of children with other food allergies or feeding concerns
• We do not use seed oils! The kitchen cooks use olive oil, avocado oil, or coconut oil
• We do not serve food with artificial colors or food dyes!
• To the extent possible, we try to source organic produce whenever possible
• When we serve sweetened yogurt (Noosa brand), we dilute the yogurt with plain organic greek yogurt to reduce the sugar content (in a 3:1 ratio of greek yogurt to Noos)
• We are a nut-free facility; we offer sun butter to children as a snack, usually served on whole-wheat tortillas, rice cakes or crackers.

At Treehouse Learning, we are called to help children grow, learn, and thrive. We care for children like its our business, and like our future depends on it. We wouldn’t be providing excellent care or education if we didn’t also care about their bodies, and nourish children with the opportunity to love eating good food, and empower them to know how to take care of their body.