Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Just would like to take a little informal survey--
for those of you with kids in middle school, do your kids typically bring their lunch, buy it, or a combination of both?
I used to pack lunches for elementary school, letting them buy lunch 1x week for a break. However, once they started middle shcool, it became logistically awkward for them to pack a lunch. In elementary, they left their lunches in their homeroom. Now that they have lockers, they complain the lockers are too small to accomodate a lunch box (and I agree). Also, its a timing thing, by the time they run to their lockers, get their lunch, then back to the cafeteria, most of the lunch period is gone. It just didn't work out anymore, so I let them buy their lunch.
Problem is, those lunches are so small. for the basic tray, $2.30, there's barely enough for a kindergartner. Its more like samples. I thought it was ok, reading the menu, until I happened to see a tray, that's not enough for a growing teen! And the drink is so small, just a little carton of milk. They end up buying extras, like bottled water, which costs 75 cents, or soda, then, extra items because they're simply hungry. They end up spending $4-$5 day, per kids, which is outrageous. Still, they can't go hungry.
Our finances are strained to the max, but we don't qualify for free or reduced lunch. This is simply unsustainable, any suggestions? Mainly, I'm interested to know how many middle school kids buy or bring their lunch?
Perhaps I could pack a small bag with bottled water and a few extras, let them buy the standard tray, but that still doesn't address the problem of the timing, the cafeteria is way on the other side of the school, the kids spend literally most of their lunch period running their lunch bag around.
Is the lunch room constantly packed with lots of students? Do they get called up to the lunch line class by class? How much time do students have to eat? It depends on how the operations are setup. When I was in middle school, if you were the last class to get called up to the lunch line, you barely had enough time to eat before the bell! In that case, it was better to bring a packed lunch. Also, school lunches are not even nutritional. I started getting school lunch in the 2nd grade (non-reduced). Wonder if I would have "hoagie arms" now if I had a packed lunch everyday in school?
My old middle school in Northern Wisconsin in the early '90s implimented a new program during my last year there that I really liked, and I think more schools should do it.
They began offering two kinds of school lunch - hot lunch and bag lunch. You could go through the line and buy the standard tray lunch, meaning whatever was being served that day. Spaghetti, corn dog, other fine cuisine they usually serve. The other option was bag lunch. You could go through a different line and literally get a brown bag lunch with a sandwich, piece of fruit, cookie, and I think chips. I think they offered three different kinds - turkey sandwich lunch, ham sandwich lunch, and bologna sandwich lunch. I don't remember any other kinds but those. I can still taste the bologna. It was different than the kind you buy at the store. They sliced it super thin and stacked it high on the sandwich. If you've ever seen that thin Carl Budding sandwich meat they sell really cheap in grocery stores, that's what it looked like. So good.
I wish I could remember exactly how it worked. I think you went through, they handed you a bag with a sandwich (whatever kind of meat you chose), then you went through and grabbed a kind of chips you wanted, a kind of fruit (I think they offered the standard banana, apple, or orange), and a milk. Or you could get soda. And I can't remember if you could choose your cookie, or it came with the bag. Anyway, that was really good.
I doubt they do it anymore. It was a long time ago and schools are forever changing things. But that would be a good idea for any school. Sometimes I liked something hot. I remember the school system in that area had good pizza. On a pizza day, I might choose tray. Then some days you wanted something very basic, like a hearty little bag lunch. It was helpful for kids who didn't have time to pack one. In a way, there was little reason to even bring one from home. lol
I frankly do not believe this happened. Had this occurred in any school that I've ever worked in, that person would have been fired. The child would have been given the lunch and told that the account needed to be replenished. The school office that handles the lunch accounts would have called home.
Your son is the problem. It's YOUR responsibility to get him to stop buying lunch and using his sister's account. Does he get an allowance? Cancel it and pay back the sister. Give the daughter cash and close both accounts. Close the son's account and put it in writing to the school that your daughter is the only one to use a lunch account. Deliver the letter in person and get them to tell you they will do that.
You are one allowing your son to get away with the above and then blaming the school for "letting" him do it. Again, I do not believe they threw away her tray.
You still don't get it.
First, my son was NOT using my dd lunch account. The cafeteria staff would rebalance "family" accounts every morning, if one werer low, they would take from the another in the same family to bring it up. since his lunch was first, he got his account funded firs ts.
Wehn dd (at the time age 8) went through the line, she had selected her tray, was at the checkout line, and they took her tray away from her, dumped it in the trash in front of her, and gave her a stale cheese sandwich instead. This is not what ds told me, its waht dd told me, and I later confirmed with the cafeteria officials, oh, that't their policy. Some policy., to balance their accounting by taking the food away from a child's plate. Besides, throwing that tray in the trash didn't put any money back in their account, it was just meanness directed towards a child. There was no excuse for it, they could have called me, they called me about every other piddly thing, but they could call to say oh, BTW, we plan to dump your child's lunch tray, have a nice day.
Besides, they woldn't "close an account". Whenever the kid came in, he could either buy or they would run a tab. We went through all thr ap suggestions, wrote letters, sent certified mail, even sent to the school board. they said legally they couldn't stop him from buying foo if he had the money. Well, what about when he didn't have the money? Oh, they just rebalanced dd account for him. But what about when dd account went empty? They just took her food away.
Believe what you want, the school cafeteria manager admitted this happened, acted like it was an ok policy. That'w when I told them if its ok, its ok to be on the 6 pm news, and I do know people in broadcasting who would love such a story.
Your focus should be on YOUR SON and his bad lunch habits. Fix that and it doesn't matter what the school policy is. Tell him to knock it off or his dinner every night for a week is a stale cheese sandwich.
Packing lunches also eliminates the problem and is better for your bottom line.
The tray getting trashed happened when your dd was 8 and she is now in middle school?? OMG get over it. That happend in grade school, she is now in middle school. Just go in and tell them you want to make sure dd and ds accounts are kept seperate. What is the big deal. I just don't get it. LET IT GO. I would be mad all the time if I thought about every little bad thing that has happened from the time my dd was 8 until now.
I would love to know how you prepare the sausage, egg and cheese mcmuffins for your freezer, and how you reheat them. I think my kids would be thrilled with them for breakfast. Please share!
Sure. None of us like them with cheese so we skip that. I buy a tube of breakfast sausage and slice it into patties to cook. I also have a silicone egg ring to make the eggs in a nice circle shape but it isn't necessary. Lightly toast the english muffins. I don't use any extra butter to cook the eggs or on the muffins.
The kids and DH are currently debating how they want to freeze these.
Consensus is that they don't like the muffin to be microwaved that long. I had been making them up complete, wrap in a paper towel and put in sandwich baggie, cool in the fridge before freezing. To reheat, keep in paper towel only and heat 1-2 minutes until hot.
I might try freezing the sausage and egg separately from the muffin or take them out of the freezer the night before so it isn't in the microwave as long.
We do something similar, but we freeze the sausage/bacon, eggs and muffins/biscuits individually. Then, we separate the halves and bake them for 15 minutes or so at 350 degrees in the toaster oven. Nobody in our family likes cheese either!
The story is indeed true about the lunch throwing away-it happens in our district as well. While my kid's school doesn't take money from the other child's account, they just throw the lunch away if there's a lack of funds. The lunch is then replaced with a sandwich from the freezer (ick!).
Marylee, our complaints are almost EXACTLY the same about the lunch program. I'm wondering if we live in the same district?!
If they did indeed throw the lunch away, that is just ridiculous. I am stunned to hear this as this is way outside of my school experience regarding lunches.
In any case, it's still on the OP to rein in her son and his spending habits. If she does that, problem solved.
Last edited by cleasach; 08-31-2010 at 08:22 AM..
Reason: grammar dammit
Exactly. Regardless, that was in the past, time to move on. Not even the same school at this point. The problem is not the school and their accounts, the problem is you can't afford to purchase school lunches, you don't want to pack them and you want to find a way to hold the school responsible. You can blame whomever you want but in the end, it doesn't change the fact that school lunches are more than you can afford right now and your kids still need to eat lunch. The answer is to pack. They are old enough to assume responsibility for this. If they forget it is not the school's fault, it is not your fault, it is their fault. Allow them that step in growing up. That is your job as a parent.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In that case, it was better to bring a packed lunch. Also, school lunches are not even nutritional. I started getting school lunch in the 2nd grade (non-reduced). Wonder if I would have "hoagie arms" now if I had a packed lunch everyday in school?
