Answer: At UCDC, the teachers eat with the children at every meal, mirroring what would happen at home. This practice is extremely important to our philosophy at UCDC for so many reasons. First, we believe that modeling healthy eating helps a child to try new foods and accept new foods more readily. We also know that children imitate others and when we all sit together eating a healthy, shared meal; the children are more likely to participate fully. Second, family style meals play a large part of our family oriented philosophy. We want our Center to feel like a second home to the children and families so we work to create a home-like atmosphere in our environment and practices. Similar to the aspect of having children call the teachers by their first names and the presence of family photographs in every classroom, we want UCDC to feel like home and sharing food family-style plays a big part in this practice. Finally, we love it! The teachers form such a strong bond with your little ones and they thoroughly enjoy the time spent with them, including meals! It's a lovely time to talk about weekend plans, discuss the play that they children have engaged in or share about their favorite foods. Lunch at UCDC is BUSY, but enjoyable!