The NourishED Kids Center was born out of the practical needs of a new mom.
We are solving a real problem.
Parents place their children in daycare every day, yet most are left with only two food options:
Pack a non-refrigerated lunch or use the daycare lunch program.
Too often, both options rely heavily on processed foods.
Many parents simply do not have the time, energy, resources, or support to prepare fresh, locally sourced meals every single day while balancing the demands of work and family life.
So Lunchables and shelf-stable pouches end up in the bag. Meanwhile, children are spending some of the most important developmental years of their lives forming their relationship with food. The NourishED Kids Center exists to empower daycares, children and their parents to provide the highest quality food, nutritional education & strengthen the connection to our local Florida food system. We believe healthy food should be accessible to ALL daycares, regardless of the parent's income. We believe nutritious meals, food education, and connection to local agriculture should be woven directly into the environments where children learn and grow.That belief became our mission.
The NourishED Kids Center exists to feed, educate, and connect young children and families through healthy food initiatives in childcare settings.
Our Mission, Our Story
Meet the Founder
Meet Natalie Van Lenten, founder of The NourishED Kids Center.
Natalie is a wife, mother, and food industry professional with over 15 years of experience working in food systems and consumer products.
After becoming a mother, she began to notice a gap between what many parents hoped to feed their children and the food options realistically available in childcare settings.
Like many families, she saw firsthand how difficult it could be to consistently provide fresh, nourishing meals during the busy realities of everyday life.
What started as concern quickly turned into a mission.
"I wanted my children to eat a hot, fresh lunch that was completely made from scratch. I wanted the daycare to reinforce the nutritional structure that I was working so hard to build at home. "
“It feels as though every part of my journey — my education in Nutrition at Cornell, my years of experience developing the operations of the national accounts for big food, the food service at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, and then becoming a SAHM — ultimately became the foundation for launching The NourishED Kids Center.
The reality is that healthy food is often more expensive, more labor-intensive, and more difficult to implement within traditional childcare systems.
But difficult does not mean impossible.
I am committed to helping forge a different way forward — starting right here in beautiful St. Johns County.
My hope is that St. Johns County can become a model for childcare nutrition across Florida and become a community that supports local farmers, values fresh food, teaches children how to nourish their bodies well, and demonstrates that sometimes the harder path is also the better one. This is what The NourishED Kids Center is all about."