I have used a catering service that specialized in day cares only in the past and I have to say there were advantages and disadvantages.
At the time I had a group of 3.5-5 year olds and they ate a lot so often I had to make a double batch when I made supper and it got quite expensive since I am a little ... ok very picky on what I eat and I cook a lot of food the daycare kids just refused to eat.I hate , hate cooking as well lol I enjoy making exotic meals and that's it ( and no one else but me likes them lol)
So I used a catering service every day for about a year. I loved how the food was delivered to my door every morning so I never had to worry about cooking! Snacks were included so I never had to do any meal planning at all.
I loved how using a catering service was 100 % deductible while only a % of my groceries are.
I also found it less insulting of the kids didn't like the meals lol and I didn't feel as bad if I had to throw some out at the end of the vs having to throw out a meal I slaved over LOL (if that even makes senses lol) The catering service I used was great. The meals were salt free,nut free, all home made ,lots of variety etc.
I didn't like is there were some snacks I didn't agree with and just served something else instead.. this only happened once a month or so. I didn;t like how bland some of the meals and veggies were but I think that's just me, the kids seemed to enjoy it in general.
So over all I really enjoyed using a caterer
I did not like however that it used to cost me about $450 a month or so. I don't know if that's a lot or not but I do know that it was costing me the same thing when I made my meals for the daycare myself.
Now I have a group that eats soooooo little so it just isn't worth it anymore. I just serve the leftovers from the night before and voila !