We are only a few weeks into school and my daughter is already a bit bored with her lunch. I worked in the 3 cafeteria for 3 years and I have a pretty good idea what might work. I know what kids like and what they are most likely to throw away.
For example, a whole apple – they are extremely pitch-able and make a satisfying “thud” when they hit the bottom of the garbage can. If you slice the apple, then put it back in the shape of a whole apple, then a piece of fruit becomes fun. Send some …read more

What would you do if you packed your child a meal every day only to find over half of it was never touched? Many may not think anything of it. But when she is coming home every day asking to eat because she is hungry or tired and wants to go right to sleep, one begins to wonder. Honestly what would you do?
Today, she came home again like this. This time I hounded “Why?”
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind her eating but why is she coming home with almost none of her lunch touched? She admitted that at lunch …read more

Every year we go enroll our children in school and get a new set of rules to follow, this year will not be any different. With different teachers you’lget ways of teaching, methods of correcting and what they want out of the school year. This includes many things, from the way your child behaves to school lists. But once the school year begins you’ll also have to decide yet one more thing. Does your child bring a lunch or buy it?
If your child is buying lunch at school, are they eating healthy food or the junk? Yes, I said junk …read more

At the beginning of every new school year, I have good intentions. I think of all the fun things I can do in my kids’ lunchboxes to keep them from getting boring, but the morning rush always sets in and making sure they even have a lunch to take with them in the first place becomes the top priority!

We usually end up alternating between peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and bologna and cheese sandwiches. Though the kids like them and I know they’re better for them the pre-packaged processed stuff the schools serve now (when did that start?), I do …read more

Every year it seems that the cost of the school lunch goes up. Am I right? We have two sets of prices to follow this year, one being theunior High and the other for the elementary school and let me say it is cheaper when you are younger.
Elementary School: $1.85
Junior High: $2.00 (secondary student), $2.50 (premier meal)
While the prices may not seem all that bad or like much of a difference it all adds up when you do this every day or have more than one child going to school. Many thought with the recession going on the prices …read more

I admit I’m not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. That said, I need some help here from you mothers who have a clue about some of this school-age kid stuff. What do I do about lunchboxes and lunches? Here’s the deal, Truman is buying his lunch at school. I paid enough into the plan that he should be set for most, if not all, of the first semester. The school apparently serves a decent lunch and they got rid of the fryer, so I felt good about the food he was offered. What I didn’t bank on was other …read more

Waste-Free Lunches estimates that the average child with a take-to-school lunch creates a whopping 67 pounds of waste per school year (that’s about 19,000 lbs of waste per each average elementary school). School lunches are full of waste. Some typical culprits…

Paper or plastic lunch bags and containers.
Snack packs of cookies, crackers, pudding cups, fruit cups, jello cups, and raisins.
Juice boxes, juice bottles, bottled water, or worse hard to recycle squeeze novelty drinks.
Plastic baggies, foil, and plastic wrap for all sorts of foods.
Lunchables or other building lunch kits.
Paper napkins and plastic silverware.

This year green it up …read more

No matter if your a kid on your way to school or camp, an adult headed off to work, or just a family off for a day at the park, we all gotta eat, and the best way to go is trash-free.
According to New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation each typical school student produces 45 to 90 pounds of garbage a year in disposable lunches. Now consider all the adults who also lug lunches around. That’s a ton of trash. Bags, plastic wrap, foil, straws, juice boxes and more all add up to a whopping load of garbage, and while …read more

Do you think that school lunches are healthy? I remember growing up- pizza, sloppy joe, burger and fries… Now there is baked chicken, spaghetti and meat sauce, tuna on wheat, peanut butter celery and a salad and veggie on every tray. Much better then what I remember. Do you think school lunches are heart healthy?
When my eldest started school I packed her lunch out of fear of ‘what the heck would she get on a school lunch tray’? Now with my older two at school- they buy lunch about 50% of the time. To be totally honest, I think the …read more