My son, bless his heart, finally told me why he wanted to buy his lunch all the time last year : If he brought a cold lunch, the kids would bombard him the entire lunch time, asking to trade and begging for his lunch.

The school he goes to has a high free/reduced lunch rate - I believe it is 78% of the school that qualifies for free/reduced lunch. So a lot of kids have the school lunches instead of bringing their lunch.

I was reading over the school manual, and inside it is clearly stated "Eat only your lunch", so I am guessing they don't want kids to trade. But they don't really enforce it either.

Is there a tactful way to bring this up to a teacher/ principal? Or would you just let it be and attempt to have your child control it?

I have told my son to just say "no", but he said that last year he did that on the rare occasions he brought his lunch, and the kids simply wouldn't let him eat his lunch in peace. They kept asking, and asking, and asking. I told him this year to take a bite out of everything and say it has his germs and that he can't trade now. LOL. But I doubt that would even deter some of the kids.

There is a lunchroom duty, but from what I can see and have heard, they spend most of their time telling the kids to quiet down and to eat, and I doubt that kids trading is high on their agenda of things to control.

This year, he is taking his lunch more often than he is buying it though, because I feel that I can provide a better lunch that he will actually eat all of better than the lunch the school is serving. So we need to nip this in the bud early in the school season.

Which brings me to :

What do you put in your childs cold/hot thermos? I bought a thermos that is supposed to keep things hot for 5 hours or cold for 7 hours, and plan on using it a lot this school year for my son. What kind of things keep their flavor and temperature the best? I have thought of things like : soup, mac & cheese (or is this nasty after 5 hours??), canned fruit, spaghetti o's. But does anyone have other suggestions? My son is kind of picky, and he will be eating lunch at 12:10 this year (after getting to school around 8am) so I know he will be STARVING by the time lunch is served.

Thanks in advance!!

The no trading policy is strictly enforced at our school district.

Kids can have life threatening allergies to peanuts or shellfish. A couple of years back, an elementary child died because he ate fish and he was allergic. They had served it for hot lunch, and he wasn't supposed to have it but someone goofed.

Maybe this will convince your school.

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Donna

My oldest daughter seems to face this but my youngest hasn't said anything about it. My oldest is in 4th grade, youngest is in 2nd. Anyway, she has been known to pass on food that she doesn't want or if she has a pack of crackers and eats one or two, she'll give them the rest. I agree with donnaquilt though about allergies and all, really there should be no trading or giving your lunch to others. In fact, I'm going to mention this to my dd. She just thinks she's being nice and sharing but she'd never want to make another child sick.
As for the thermos ideas....my daughters love ramen noodles and they keep well in a thermos. Both of my kids say the mac 'n cheese isn't too good after being in the thermos but maybe it's just them. Two things I'll suggest about the thermos: one, put boiling water in the thermos for 15 or more minutes before putting the food in. This will get the thermos "heated" up and keep the food hotter for longer. Also, we experiment on the weekends or during the summer with the thermos. We put foods in, let them set 4 or so hours and see how they taste. It's better than sending it to school and having your child not be able to eat it and then be starving because their lunch wasn't good.
My girls take pretty much what you mentioned, spaghetti O's, soup, noodles. They have taken french toast sticks, pizza rolls, chicken nuggets and mini corn dogs. The only problem with these items are they aren't crunchy by lunch time. My youngest likes french toast sticks to be soft not crunchy so she'll eat them but my oldest wants everything crunchy and piping hot! We're going to try chicken and rice(like fried rice)soon and see how that turns out.

Thanks for the replies.

I thought about pizza rolls, chicken nuggets, chicken fingers, etc. but was not sure about that. I guess we can give it a try.

I would think they would enforce the trading thing also, with the allergy problem (I have seen signs on doors of classrooms stating "Peanut Free Zone" and stuff) but I guess that is not really a concern for the school (yet...).

my son's classroom was told the 1st day of school about not sharing/trading lunches. i was surprised, but after it sank in, it made sense to me and i think it's necessary.

i wish i could pack a thermos in his lunch, but he doesn't want to bring anything back home! he's strictly a pb & j kid. he's not into the school lunches, and i *try* to pack healthy items. i just made chocolate chip cookies today (1/2 regular flour and 1/2 wheat flour!), wrapped them in 2's and put them in the freezer so he'll have dessert for the rest of the month! i'm running out of ideas and it's only been one week of school!

My son was just talking about trading the other day. He is such a picky eater that it's hard to give him much of a selection. I was sending those crackers w/ peanut butter and he gave them to a friend, what if that kid was allergic!?

I feel like I send the same things in every day, a bagel, carrots, apple or banana, pretzels, and either a chocolate milk box, or a juice. We tried the school lunches, but he didn't like them and he doesn't eat meat, so I am limited on what to pack. We tried a salad (which he loves), but it got soggy by lunch time. Once in a while he'll take a yogurt or gogurt, but they aren't that healthy either.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

While most schools try to enforce this, it's impossible . In our school the teacher leaves the class in the lunchroom to be supervised by aides/parent volunteers and she goes and eats with other teachers. There are probably 4 or 5 adults circulating around a cafeteria with probaby 12 classes in it at a time. If kids are seen attempting to trade it is discouraged for all the reasons mentioned above, but it definitely still goes on.

DD is in 6th grade this year and eats lunch at 10:50am. She takes lunch usually 4 days a week, maybe 1 or 2 days she will buy if it's something she likes. She likes the hot thermos better than a sandwich and takes, the Armour beef stew (getting it free right now with coupons), the Red Baron mini pizzas (you can fit 3 pizzas in the thermos (getting a pack of 8 for .50 with coupons), she makes bean burritoes heating up the refried beans to put in the thermos, then putting in the lunch bag the flour tortillas and grated cheese then puts it together at lunch, leftover spaghetti, beefaroni (generic), Ramen, spaghettios, soup. She ususally doesn't have any problems with people wanting her main item, but the snacky items like pretzels, cookies that type thing, I usually just put extra in so she can share with friends.

Have you tried the a salad keeper? I have heard of this product before never used it but it sounds like something for your son.

The Container Store > Shop Lunch on the Go > Salad Blaster Bowl

As for the salads I send one each day for my 7 year old son (he has a disability and has to have healthy meals). We have found the best way to keep it fresh is to send the greens in a container and the dressing in one of the little round take-a-long containers. I get them at the dollar store. I also send the add ins, tomatoes, carrots, chicken, whatever else I'm sending for his salad seperately in either baggies or containers and he adds everything and stirs the salad up himself. We've also used a salad cup type container where the dressing goes in the lid. It worked ok but the seperate container method seems to work best for us. I also send a frozen cold pack in the lunch bag. Nothing has gone soggy or yucky and his lunches are usually the envy of the other kids too.

I would bring up the sharing with his teacher. Noone should be sharing food. There's lots of situations where kids have food restrictions. My son's meals have to be carefully planned. Diabetics, allergies, etc are all reasons why they shouldn't share.

We used to just lick everything. It doesn't gross kids out if another kid has just taken a bite. Slobbering over each item does the trick though.... at least it did when I was in grade school.

My son doesn't really like meat either. He is more a fruit/veggie kind of kid. He doesn't drink milk either. I guess I wasn't so far off by saying to take a bit of everything, LOL.

I like that solution! LOL... I suspect that my son is one of the ones who is begging from others so I can't offer any advice.

Thanks! That would be worth getting a couple of!

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

There is a lunchroom duty, but from what I can see and have heard, they spend most of their time telling the kids to quiet down and to eat, and I doubt that kids trading is high on their agenda of things to control.
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I can't stand this policy, Kids need a freaking break! Being Loud doesn't bother me as long as their butts are planted in the seats and their not screaming at the top of their lungs. Kids need to blow off some steam after having to be focused on learning the FCAT, uhm I mean doing school work! I think that the classroom would be a much better and more focused place to be after lunch if they would let these children have some time to talk to their friends and be kids!

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Vicki


TLJ Women united in Spirit!

I agree. I don't even get stressed when the classrooms get a bit loud as long as they are quiet when I am teaching, completing independent work, or walking in the halls. Especially with Kindergarten... at that age, so many of them are learning to talk and socialize. I get frustrated when the aides come in while I'm teaching and tell them to get quiet. That stresses me out more than the noise (can you tell that I subbed in a Kindergarten class the other day!).

I feel that the lunchroom is their downtime but they get all kinds of threats and anger vibes from the lunchroom ladies if they talk at all in there. If I worked in a lunchroom, I probably wouldn't last long because I'd annoy the other workers with not enforcing the 'quiet' rule. LOL.

I would love to stand in the lunch ladies break time and yell at them to be quiet and see how they'd like it!!!!

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Vicki


TLJ Women united in Spirit!

Lunch Box Ideas:

Cheese sticks
Individual Cottage Cheese Singles
Chiquita Individually Bagged Apples
Pretzels
Yogurt
Gogurt
Dole Fruit Cups
Applesauce - Individual cups

Peanut Butter & Banana Sandwich
Pampered Chef - Thingy that cuts and seals the bread (the kids love it!). We do ham & cheese sandwiches, or pb & j
Tortilla Sandwich Wrap - put lettuce, cheese, meat in it and roll it up.

Inside the Thermos:
Spaghettios
Ravioli
Mac 'n Cheese
Spaghetti
Suddenly Salad - Pasta

There are a couple of books out there too. I don't remember the exact names, but something like Lunchbox Recipes, or Healthy Lunchbox Ideas.

Thanks azmom! My son likes the Classic blend of Suddenly salad. He won't eat peanut butter though, so the typical peanut butter and jelly sandwich is out of the question. I doubt he would eat the standard sandwich I had as a kid either : lunchmeat and warm mayonnaise. (It is a wonder I didn't get food poisoning!!)

I am loving all the ideas! Thanks, to all of you!

And I agree about the lunchtime duty/teachers. I am going to make it a point to eat lunch with my son once a month this year. I only did it once last year, and he really enjoyed seeing me at lunchtime. The school encourages parents to eat lunch with their kids, but very few of them do. It helps to break the monotony of the school day. (The standardized test here is the WASL..... and I HATE IT!!)

Our school principal is in the lunchroom yelling on a microphone at the kids. Let's just say on one of my many calls to the district, I asked them don't you think the principal has something better to do with her time than yell at the kids? District was trying to tell me that she was in there to let the kids know she cares and is trying to be available to them. I basically told the district that doesn't happen and she is yelling at the children, which by the way can be heard on the sidewalk outside the school. She is there everyday and lunch starts at 10 am and goes to 1:15 pm.

That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! She is going to cause some hearing loss for sure if shes yelling through a microphone!!!!!!!

I would get your child's hearing checked and make sure she's not causing permanent damage. Then call the school board and tell them your child has had to get his hearing checked b/c of this woman!!! I'm serious and I would also sit in the cafeteria and give her the weirdest looks i could and then afterwards ask her what can be done so the children don't go deaf with her yelling into a microphone??!!! Sorry this is a big problem for me....our school gets the oldest crankest women and then lets them yell away. I swear I will snap soon with them yelling!!!

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Vicki


TLJ Women united in Spirit!

I am thinking it is about time for us to have a lunch date in the cafeteria. It is about time for me to check in and see if I need to be making any calls downtown...the cafeteria was a real source of problems last year and calls to the district seemed to help.

In regards to what to send for lunch...having sat in for lunch many times I will tell you what not to send. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON LUNCHABLES! Your kids think they look great but 50% of the stuff in them is going in the trash. It killed me to see those $3 things getting trashed when the kid could have bought lunch for 1.30 and might have eaten it or it might have ended up in the trash. You know what your kids eat, send what they like so they will eat and they dont come home ravenous for a huge snack.

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TLJ ~ Women United in Spirit

Wouldn't hurt to let 'em go outside for 15 minutes either. You'd be surprised (or not ) how fast they'd scarf their lunch down just to be able to go outside and play. They wouldn't be concerned or want to take the time for trading lunches.

We tried the Thermos for awhile; but soon figured out that there wasn't much to send that was going to be much better than the school lunch offering ....ChefBoyRDee or spaghettios,, canned soups & chili, ramen, etc.....I guess I just don't think of those as healthy alternatives. Too much sodium. Same thing with the Lunchables....really high in fat and sodium. I do send leftover homemade chili or beef stew though.

Mostly, bag lunch is sandwiches or wraps....tunafish is the favorite. Also leftover grilled chicken breast on a bulkie or sliced in a salad.... ETA: DS2 likes to take cold shrimp and a little cup of seafood sauce. He won't share that one!

I agree that little kids should not be permitted to trade lunch contents, but I'm OK with middle schoolers and up. By that age, they need/want to be a little more independent and those with allergies should know what they are and what they can or cannot have.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

It doesn't matter what you send, they eat what they want and throw away the rest. Most of the time the parents send a nice sandwich and/or container of some type of main course, but they also include chips or a Little Debbie or a jello, etc. They eat the dessert and throw away the rest. I wish parents could see what they actually do eat, it ain't much.