Clean Plate founders, Fern Pereira and Susan Swolfs.
Clean Plate was established to enable early childhood education centres and settings with healthy lunch ideas for kids, nutritious menu plans, toddler meal ideas and healthy snack recipes for under-fives.
Our goal is to create a space in which those working in the industry can stay connected, learn and share ways to promote healthy food and overall well-being for under-fives. We believe a ‘whole centre’ approach and collaboration throughout the sector is the best way to achieve this.
Who is Susan?
Susan loves Early Childhood Education, and helping children get the best start they can is what drives her. She began working in Early Childhood Education (ECE) in New Zealand in 2010. Since then she has worked as a teacher for under and over 2s, as head teacher in both age groups, and as centre manager. With her broad experience in the ECE setting she can relate to, and guide teachers and managers, helping to create a healthy environment and establish practices that promote healthy eating.
“As a mother of two young girls, I’m very familiar with the ins-and-outs of working with children under 5, both in a centre environment and at home,” says Susan. “My passion is getting children off to a happy, healthy start and providing them fun and exciting ways of exploring what interests them.”
Who is Fern?
Fern is an accomplished Cordon Bleu chef and has spent a number of years specialising in early childhood settings. She has worked in and out of the kitchen, promoting healthy eating to children, staff and parents alike. Her passion is creating healthy meals that appeal to young children’s taste buds that are easy to make and are budget-friendly. Fern has extensive knowledge in building menus that tick the Ministry of Health recommendations and the Heart Foundation’s Healthy Heart Award guidelines.
Importantly, she is also experienced in food safety and hygiene and how to implement systems in your ECE centre that are simple to follow and meet the specifications of the 2014 Food Act. Fern is also currently completing her Graduate Diploma in Health Promotion at AUT.
“If we are to grow into healthy adults and live healthy lives, education around good nutrition needs to start in our early years,” says Fern. “I firmly believe the ECE cook is an integral part of the ECE team, making the kitchen and the food prepared in it another avenue for children’s learning. Clean Plate is all about making this easy to do.”