Allergen & Dietary Restriction Management

Your allergy concerns are our top priority. We work closely with your child’s centre or school to ensure that our replacement snacks and meals are made specifically for your child’s special dietary needs.

Our mission through our allergy management process is to ensure children receive food that is safe, healthy and aligns with their religious beliefs and lifestyle choices, including, Halal, Vegan and Vegetarianism.

To do this,

  • Our facility is 100% nut free, pork free and shellfish free
  • A Red Seal Chef, using specialized tools within our ERP system, plans all replacement meals and snacks
  • Allergy and dietary replacements are cooked by a Nutritionist in a separate area in our facility

Our allergen management program prepares replacement meals and snacks for more than 100 different allergens, dietary and lifestyle restrictions. The most common allergens that we replace each day are gluten, dairy, eggs, sesame, fish, wheat, vegetarian, halal and vegan.

Variety in meal and snack replacements is important to us and to our customers. We want our meal replacements to be as close as possible to the main meal to support an inclusive environment at your site. We carefully avoid “blanket” allergen dishes that may meet the most extreme allergen, but would be too limiting for other children that have less restrictions.

Managing extensive allergens on a daily basis is a key part of what we do. Our customized allergen module in our ERP software is a main component in making sure our employees have the right information and the right tools at their fingertips. Our allergen module, takes the complexity of the allergen management and turns it into a science; methodical, dependable and reliable for our qualified team to then cook, bake or prepare the replacement in a safe and healthy manner.

“As a mother of a child with severe and multiple food allergies, you can imagine my concerns and fear with choosing an appropriate child care option for my son. Based on my discussions with the team at Helping Hands Brooklin and what I have personally seen to date, I can say that I have no doubt that my son is in the very best care available. The care and concern on top of the very strict procedures that are followed with respect to food allergies, ensures me on a daily basis that my son is safe and getting the best overall care that he needs. Wholesome Kids Catering, formerly Food for Tots, provides tasty, alternative meals that my son can enjoy so that he can have lunch with the rest of his class without feeling like the odd boy out. I am truly grateful for Helping Hands and what they have been able to offer my son, well­rounded care in a safe environment for his food allergies.”

Margaret Park Kwiatkowski, Parent