Tag Archives: school lunch

Parents Eating Lunch with Kids at School Cause Problems

Think back to when you were an elementary school kid. Lunch time was probably one of the highlights of your day. It is one of the few opportunities during the school day where kids get to eat and to socialize with their peers. Some parents have started eating lunch with their kids at school. This is causing problems. Darrien News (Darren, Connecticut) reported that a rule change will no longer allow parents to eat with kindergarteners and first-graders at the town’s elementary schools. This rule was conveyed to parents via email. The email was sent by Interim Superintendent Elliott Landon. … Continue reading →

Banning Chocolate Milk Doesn’t Improve Nutrition

Parents who had children in several schools in Oregon noticed what they viewed as a problem. The kids were much more likely to drink chocolate milk than they were to drink white milk. The parents believed that banning the chocolate milk would force the kids to start drinking more white milk. Instead, things did not work out as planned. It is safe to say that the parents in the school district’s PTA meant well. They were hoping to make changes that would provide better nutrition for the students. They believed that removing the chocolate milk, and only offering white milk, … Continue reading →

Does It Cost More for a Homemade Lunch?

I started out making homemade lunches for my first-born child for financial reasons. It just seemed cheaper that way than to buy lunch from the cafeteria. Years later, all of my kids still pack their lunch bags every day. They actually prefer it because they don’t have to spend time waiting in a cafeteria line or trying to decide on food they might not like. A friend of mine agrees with the preference but not with the cost. She says she winds up spending more money when her kids pack a lunch compared to when they buy it at school. … Continue reading →

Let There Be Light

I can see it, smell it, and almost touch it. It’s the light at the end of the tunnel. And by tunnel I mean my daughter’s school year. In two weeks I will enjoy a treasured reprieve from the worst mom job ever—packing school lunches. I abhor the near daily ritual, which hurts my brain, as much as it does my wallet. I’ve endured this penitent practice for nearly three years and I still haven’t figured out what I can pack that my now 8-year-old won’t toss into the school’s 80-gallon garbage barrel. Aside from the torment of devising a … Continue reading →

Tips for Livening up Your Kid’s School Lunch

For some kids back-to-school means back to eating the same ol’ peanut butter and jelly sandwiches five days a week. If you pack your child’s lunch every day, then you know how challenging it can be to come up with new and exciting options your kid will actually eat (and not trade for cookies and chips). Instead of spending the next eight months packing PB&J, consider breaking out of the sandwich rut with these ideas: * Leftover pizza * Leftover pasta * Leftover fried rice * Soup in a thermos * Brown rice salad with nuts and veggies * A … Continue reading →

Back-to-School Battle: Lunch

With millions of students heading back to class next week parents are bracing for the obligatory back-to-school battles with their children over clothes, transportation… and lunch. Some kids simply refuse to eat school lunch, which leaves moms and dads scrambling to come up with homemade meals that are both healthy and tasty. For many parents that means buying packaged lunches, which may look nutritious, but are actually far from it. For example, did you know Lunchables’ Maxed Out Cracker Stackers Combo Ham and Cheddar—-a popular lunch choice among middle school students–contains 22 grams of fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol and … Continue reading →

Health at School: Lunch Time!

Ah, the school lunch. The cafeteria has come a long way since I was in grammar school, where you had one meal option and one “alternate” Sandwich choice. Even by the time I was in high school, the cafeteria had stepped up to compete with the local eateries in town, offering multiple hot and cold meal choices. Still, your kids might not want to chow down on cafeteria food every day — or you might want to save money and send lunch from home. Here are some tips to help ease the lunchtime battle. Set a lunch allowance. My parents … Continue reading →

A Recipe for Healthy School Snacks

We are a brown bag family. When it comes to school lunches, we prefer to send our schol-age child with a homemade lunch, and he prefers that, too. Our reasons for providing him with a home made lunch are: it is less expensive, I can better control the nutrition and steer away from colors and preservatives, there is a short amount of time to eat lunch and he doesn’t want to spend part of it waiting in line, and he is always hungry after a school lunch–complaining that there is not enough food. A typical lunch brought from home may … Continue reading →

School Lunches Getting More Expensive

And now, here is another casualty of the rising food prices, the school lunch. I have to tell you that I am getting tired of mentioning rising food prices, but there is just no way around it. The fact that food is getting so much more expensive and rising so quickly affects almost everything related to the frugal lifestyle. So bear with me as I bring you another important article related to expensive food. With food prices getting so high, I’ve been considering allowing my son to buy more school lunches instead of packing them from home. This is because … Continue reading →

School Cafeterias are Losing Money

It is a growing trend for more and more students to bring their lunch to school. More and more parents are packing up lunch boxes rather than paying the cafeteria for their children’s lunch. Some parents pack lunches due to picky eaters while others are simply being cost conscious. For whatever the reason, cafeterias are taking note. Cafeterias are noticing the trend. They say that they are being forced to give students more options and better food in order to try to increase the number of children who purchase lunch from them. My school cafeteria presently offers two entrees and … Continue reading →