Nutrition

Nutrition is a vital consideration for all individuals, but especially for young children because of how rapidly development occurs during the first five years of life. Due to this fact, the educators at the Piper Center and our partners at Chartwell collaborate to provide the highest quality snacks, meals, and cooking experiences for the children enrolled in our program. An added bonus for our families is that when life gets in the way of a well-balanced dinner, they can rest assured that their child was served a nutritious lunch.

The sample menu below shows that each meal and snack served meets the USDA’s CACFP standards including: snacks with two or more components, lunches that include a fruit, vegetable, grain, and protein, an age-appropriate serving of whole or 2% milk, and at least one whole grain food per day.

*Whole grain food
Children 24 months of age and older are served 2% milk, children 12-24 months old receive whole milk, and children under 12 months of age are served formula/breast-milk as provided by their families.

Meet Chef Sharon!

Our Chartwells Chef, lovingly referred to as Chef Sharon by the children, staff and families alike, is a native of Waco and grew up in the surrounding area. She has been part of the Baylor community for over 14 years and loves staying connected to the University in her role at the Piper Center. Chef Sharon has been cooking since childhood, stating, "I was always in the kitchen with my mother!" Two of Chef Sharon's greatest joys in life are cooking nourishing meals and spending time with her loving husband, three grown children, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

This school year, Chef Sharon has a sous chef! Shae Early is a senior Nutrition Sciences major at Baylor. Shae has been a huge support to the smooth preparation, delivery, and clean-up of our meals and snacks this year, and she is gaining a lot of great insight and experience under Chef Sharon's tutelage.