1) Invest in cold packs. You can get these at dollar stores. Paired with a thermal bag, the foods you send to school with your child will be protected.
2) Don't over pack. Our kids aren't allowed to trade foods, so what they don't eat is wasted.
3) Pack healthy foods. Kids really don't eat those little packaged lunches as well as they do last night's left overs! If you don't send sweets, they'll eat the good-for-you foods.
4) Again hit the dollar stores for plastic containers you can reuse instead of plastic bags or foil.
I work in the schools as a lunch lady. Let me tell you, the kids do not eat hardly anything the parent send in. They try to throw it away as fast as they get into the lunch room. The saddest thing I see is the children that get free hot lunch throwing the whole lunch away because they do not like what was offered that day and their parents don't want to take the time to make them a lunch. Or another sad thing is seeing the child who came to school and they had their lunch box with just a granola bar, again because the parents did not want to take the time to make their lunch. One thing I do know children do not like it those Jello bowls you buy at the store. Also, they have a hard time opening their go-gerts. If they are 4th grade of lower do not send them. They explode while child is fooling with it to open and they make a mess.
The school where I used to teach had microwaves in every classroom so the students could heat up their lunches. I agree that kids prefer last night's leftovers to just about anything else. If your school doesn't have this, perhaps it is something to work for.
I also agree with the poster who said that a lot of kids waste food. I think that this has to do with attitudes learned at home and somewhat with the rules of the classroom. Some primary teachers forbid children from throwing food away, so that if the kid doesn't eat something, it goes back home so mom can see what has been devoured. A mom could make this her own rule as well, although if the kid gets in big trouble for not eating something, it will just lead to more issues. Some kids toss stuff because it is easier to get rid of it than to argue with mom about not eating it.
i know parents send thier kids to school with good intentions. BUT the majority of kids i see where i substitute either dont eat any of the lunch packed and or throw the most of it away. ,,many kids just sit there. first thru 5th grade i see every day completly ignoring their lunches. even the ones they buy from school that they have a choice they dont eat .. the employees always comment the parentts have NO IDEA what is really going on. i hear that all the time
Instead of buying new everything; why not reuse plastic food containers you would otherwise be throwing away? We do that all the time. Also, unfortunately kids do eat the prepackaged convenience foods before they eat anything else. So I agree, don't buy them. They're unhealthy and expensive.
Also, be very careful when buying snacks like granola bars or fruit leathers that are labeled as healthy. Most of them are little more than candy bars...high sugar and almost zero nutrition. Forget about what's advertised as healthy; LEARN about what is really healthy and read your labels.
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Tips on school lunches from a pre-K teacher:
