Child Care Advanced Skills Meal Quality Forum - Pasadena, CA

Child Care Meal Quality Forums

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) is offering six Meal Quality (MQ) Forums in 2023. The forums highlight ways to enhance the nutrition environment of early child care programs through improved food preparation and service using the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) meal patterns for children. The forums highlight healthy meal planning, food purchasing, food preparation, culinary skills, recipe development, and kitchen safety. Participants will be exposed to culinary techniques to assist with the creation of meals to bolster health and wellness. All attendees will receive a toolkit with a variety of resources that they can immediately utilize in child care centers and homes.

Advanced In-Person Forum

The Advanced MQ Forums are intended for experienced cooks who have more advanced culinary, menu planning, and meal service skills. Participants are not required to complete the Introductory MQ Forum to register for the Advanced MQ Forum. There will be two in-person advanced forums and one virtual advanced forum offered.

Food Planning Basics: The USDA CACFP Meal Pattern is the required structure for all meals served in programs participating in the CACFP. This session will provide an overview of the CACFP Meal Pattern and implications for meal planning. This session will also provide an overview of food purchasing guidelines..

Recipes for Child Care: Reading a recipe does not have to be complicated! Reading a recipe effectively requires a small investment of time but can reap great rewards. This session will present key techniques to reading a recipe effectively and provide hands-on experiences to practice these skills. Participants will discover resources for finding new recipes to use in child care facilities.

Recipe Standardization and Crediting: Calling all experienced cooks and menu planners! The kitchen is the place that provides endless opportunities to create healthy meals for young children. Whether you are cooking for 12 or 120 children, sharpening your recipe standardization skills will give you confidence to provide a variety of healthy meals daily. In this session, participants will learn to credit the components in recipes to further enhance their ability to get creative in the kitchen.

Hands-on Cooking Lab: Our master chef will guide participants through a hands-on cooking lab where small teams will cook recipes from scratch while applying the classroom knowledge learned in the morning sessions. Several food items will be featured and the demonstration of moderate to advanced technical skills will emphasize working smarter, not harder, in the kitchen. With the chef’s guidance, participants will practice their skills while using fresh ingredients and recipes approved by the USDA.

Registration Type: The quantity will show as "1". Each person must register independently.

Fees: The cost to attend the forum is $35 and includes a morning snack, lunch, a printed Certificate of Completion, and a tote bag filled with sample menus, recipes, a chef's knife, and other resources.

Cancellation and Refunds: We regretfully cannot issue refunds for this event; however, a substitute participant may be sent in place of the original participant.

Time: The forum will begin promptly at 8:00am, and will end at 3:00pm. There will be a one-hour lunch break.

Confirmation: After completing the registration process, a confirmation notice will be issued by email.    

Contact Information: For help with registration or information regarding the forum program agenda, the Zoom platform (for virtual training sessions), sending a replacement, or canceling, please contact Maria Lazaro by email at childcareforums@wested.org or by phone at 805-465-4464 or 800-770-6339.

For questions about the content in the MQ Forums, contact Madison Fellenz, CDSS Nutrition Education Consultant, by email at Madison.Fellenz@dss.ca.gov.