Planting Seeds of Understanding at Preschool

Jennifer Dutton outlines her approach to collaborating with ECE providers for mini vegans.

It’s a big deal, the feelings that come with sending your child off into the world without you. Perhaps it’s a daycare, a kindergarten, or an in-home care model. In my case, I’m very lucky that said ‘world’ is the neighbourhood kindy which is about 800m from our house with a small roll. But even so, it felt momentous and a bit scary to think of my little man there without me. Just before this third birthday, the time came to kiss and drop. 

Different parts of New Zealand and different care environments will have varying vibes, but for us in a smaller town away from the big centres with fantastically diverse populations, I wasn’t convinced everyone here would be au fait with veganism. A few questions during the enrollment process about the dietary requirements of other kids have made it clear my smalls would be forging a path, as the only vegan in their toddler village. 

In settling my vegan child into a conventionally Kiwi, omnivorous kindergarten community my goal is to be on side with the staff. I don’t want our family to be seen, or felt, as a hassle. But I also want to feel confident that choices for our child will be respected and upheld. It’s my job to set our centre up for success to support my child in veganism.

I went with an inform, equip, and bribe strategy.

Inform

I made sure to note down that my kid is strictly vegan in several places on all the various registration and intake forms. I also prepared a printed info sheet I sent in with him and asked to be added to his file. It was light and warm in tone, but ultimately an FAQ about all the basics. I covered what veganism is as a philosophy and what foods we choose not to have. I mentioned that a well-planned vegan diet for all life stages is supported by major nutrition bodies and the World Health Organisation. I listed some activities we avoid, like visiting captive animals or riding animals for fun. I gave examples of how we talk about animal-based foods in non-judgmental, neutral ways and made suggestions of what staff might say to my child if there’s some non-vegan food happening. 

This little written blurb might feel too much for some, but I like that in this age of policies of inclusion, and with more emphasis on documentation, this important aspect of my little one’s life can’t be missed. I’ve done my due in making sure to communicate all the important bits in writing, with no assumptions of prior knowledge and not relying on someone’s memory after a casual chat.

Equip

While our kindy is a BYO food in lunchbox situation, there are ad hoc times when food is provided around an activity or special themed day. I assembled a spare kitchen storage box of shelf-stable vegan bits to leave with the kindy staff. I included some sweets and treats, a small soy milk, an Up&Go, some egg replacer powder for when the kids do baking activities, and some ziplock bags of the dry ingredients for pikelet or waffle portions. Our local kindy loves a good pikelet activity, and this way my child can make a batch with very little extra effort for the kindy teachers. In the event of some fun kindy-lead celebration, I’ve pre-stocked them with happy treats my child would be thrilled to have. 

Policies will vary from place to place when it comes to shared foods, but at our one, they don’t allow birthday cakes to be brought in. Before I knew this I was all ready to go with a tip from a vegan parenting page, which was to drop off some frozen cupcakes (with even the icing frozen in place!) that just get thawed as required. But hooray, not needed for us. At our kindergarten, if parents really want to bring food to mark a birthday they can either choose between a cut fruit plate or ice blocks, both happily accidentally vegan so we lucked out there. And because of my nerdy FAQ, the kaiako at our centre know to pluck any stray marshmallows off fruit skewers for my child that some parents might include.

I feel an important detail in the equip stage is to make it clear that I am a team player, and I will make any extra effort to accommodate our vegan needs. When my older daughter first started kindy, I would buy supplies as needed. For example, a vegan cheese on the day they were making marmite and cheese toasties in winter for a snack.  And it warms my heart to write that over the years she attended, the balance shifted. It started with me covering instances, to the kindy staff stepping up. In her final year of attendance, I didn’t drop off one single thing. For example, they switched brands of hot chocolate powder to be dairy-free, for everyone. I was thrilled. Inch by inch towards a universal vegan baseline.

Bribe

I highly recommend delivering information alongside delivering treats. Supermarket shelves or home-baked, doesn’t everyone feel loved and important when given a yummy surprise? I suggest including a little card of what any home baking contains, as well as what it doesn’t. It’s a great way to draw attention to delicious classics being free of eggs and dairy, and also covering bases on allergens like the presence of gluten or not. 

Just recently I executed this process and saw my youngest boy off to start at kindy. The staff were eager to point out to me several vegetarian children now also on the roll. So hey, Team More Vegetables is recruiting in a way, even in my sleepy corner of Aotearoa. Which makes sending my wee boy off into the world just that much easier.

Aotearoa Vegan and Plant Based Living Magazine
This article was sourced from the Winter  2024 edition of The Vegan Society magazine.
Order your own current copy in print or pdf or browse past editions.

Disclaimer
The articles we present in our magazine and blog have been written by many authors and are are not necessarily the views and policies of the Vegan Society.