Part 1: Essay: Orientation Letter Food safety sanitation requirements, storage, preparation, proper food handling, and presentation are the first steps in ensuring proper diet and nutrition for a child’s health and welfare. As the imagined administrator of your child care center, you believe the new employee you’ve hired to work unsupervised in your center’s 2 Menu Project kitchen is experienced, knowledgeable, and already understands most guidelines regarding these five topics. However, on the new employee’s first morning of work at your center, you’re alarmed to discover the new employee doesn’t correctly understand best practices, rules, regulations, and guidelines well enough to work alone and unsupervised in the center’s kitchen area for an entire day. You decide to write an Orientation Letter to your new employee, and, in it, you will summarize at least twenty (20) of the most important rules, regulations, and guidelines you expect them to meticulously follow as they work in the kitchen. Because you are not sharing your own personal knowledge, experience, or common sense guidelines within your letter to your employee, the letter won’t summarize what you already know about these five topics. Instead, (and as this examination is considered to be a research assignment), you must use available sources, both in-print and online, to research the most professional and proper policies and protocols. Be sure the books, journal articles, and websites you’re reading and retrieving information from are credible, reputable, professional, and offer up-to-date information.
Your completed work in Part One will be written in essay format consisting of seven (7) fully developed paragraphs. From your research, select at least twenty (20) guidelines and write about these in your Orientation Letter. In this letter, be sure to appropriately cite the source of each guideline, 60584700 3 use APA-formatted in-text citations to indicate the original source of each guideline, and include a References Page in APA format at the conclusion of your assignment. Review the assignment’s video and attend the ECE130 Open Office Hour to learn examples of guidelines to be included in each paragraph. Each paragraph will likely be at least five – seven fully developed sentences. In structuring your Orientation Letter, you’ll wish to begin with a salutation (“Dear New Employee,”) followed by an introductory paragraph that previews for the reader (in this instance, your new employee) what they’ll be reading and learning about. In your introductory paragraph, you’ll want to motivate your reader to understand the important of food safety and to apply the outlined practices in their work. Your introductory paragraph is the best place to include your thesis statement (the most important statement, summary, point or argument to be made in your assignment). Your introductory paragraph will likely be comprised of at least five – seven fully developed sentences.
In your second paragraph, summarize four or more guidelines you feel are most important regarding the topic of sanitation. Include APA-formatted in-text citations to credit the original source of each guideline.This paragraph will likely be at least five – seven fully developed sentences.
Your third paragraph will summarize four or more of the most important guidelines related to the topic of food storage. Include APA-formatted in-text citations to credit the original source of each guideline. This paragraph will be five – seven fully developed sentences. Follow this with a new paragraph of at least five – seven fully developed sentences that summarize four or more of the most important guidelines related to the topic of food preparation.
In your fifth paragraph, summarize four or more guidelines you believe to be most important regarding the topic of food handling.This paragraph will be at least five – seven fully developed sentences. Then, summarize four or more of the most important guidelines related to the topic of food presentation. This sixth paragraph will include at least five – seven fully developed sentences.
Finally, share your conclusion in your final paragraph. Remind the reader of your supported thesis statement, summarize what they have learned in reading your Orientation Letter, and reiterate what they’ll be able to do differently (and better) as a result. Include any final thoughts you believe your new employee should be left with in order to satisfactorily perform their work, then close your letter appropriately
Part 2: Creating a Menu For this part of your project, you’ll select one of the two age groups offered, and then plan one week’s menu that includes three meals a day plus three snacks each day. See Figures 1 and 2, which illustrate the older food guide pyramid and the simpler Choose My Plate food guide, which shows the proportions of a child’s plate to be filled with each food group.On your submission, be sure to clearly identify which one age group you’ve selected. The age groups for this project are • Toddlers 1–2 years old or • Preschoolers 3–5 years old FIGURE 1—The USDA food pyramid shows the proportion of foods from each food group to be eaten daily. From left, the sections represent grains, vegetables, fruits, oils, dairy, and protein. Fruits Vegetables Grains Protein Dairy FIGURE 2—Choose My Plate simplifies choosing the right proportions of foods by showing that half of the daily diet should comprise vegetables and fruit and the other half grains and protein, with the emphasis on vegetables and grains. The circle represents milk or other dairy products. 6 Menu Project After carefully reviewing the nutritional information, you’ll use the menu template provided to create a five-day menu for your chosen age group. Take into account the nutritional needs (calories, recommended dietary intake, and food sources for vitamins, minerals, and nutrients) for the age group you’re working with. We’ve included a sample menu with one day’s menu completed to show you how it should look. In reviewing your completed menu, your instructor will be considering the variety you’ve offered in your meal planning, so be sure to offer different meals and snacks on each of the five days. Your instructor will also be evaluating the accuracy of the age-appropriate and measurable serving sizes listed on your menu. If you need help determining a specific serving size for a food or beverage item included in your menu, refer to the information shared within this study guide.
Note: in planning your theoretical menu, it isn’t necessary to consider or include a calorie count, nor must you plan accommodations for food allergies, religious restrictions, or other dietary considerations.
