High School and lunch

[Hannathy]

snack size zip lock bags!

 

[NotUrsula]

To keep brown-bagged food cold, freeze a water bottle, then wrap a paper towel around the bottom to absorb the condensation so that it doesn't wreck the bag. DS uses this system at summer camp where their backpacks are often outside for hours at a time. The bottle doesn't have to be thrown away -- DS always keeps his and refills it for later in the day, he has room to keep it in his backpack, and the ice usually lasts well into afternoon.

PS: To properly freeze bottled water, open the cap and pour off an inch of the water, then put it in the freezer with the cap loose enough to allow air to escape. (Tighten the cap before putting the bottle in the lunchbag, obviously.) If you don't do this, the bottom of the bottle will bow out and get round when it freezes, so that it won't stand on its base.

 

[marcyinPA]

BROWN BAGS....and everything in them disposable.

Even if my DS15 did take a lunch box, we'd likely never see it again after the first day. Taking a lunch box in HS though, is totally uncool! (at least for boys...maybe not girls, with those cute Vera lunch bags I've seen around!)

 

[MichelleinMaine]

My 9th grader puts a ham sandwich in one cargo-pants pocket and a granola bar in the other pants pocket and that's that.

 

[NotUrsula]

My 9th grader puts a ham sandwich in one cargo-pants pocket and a granola bar in the other pants pocket and that's that.

This works if cargo pants are allowed -- but it's not happening at the uniformed HS's around here. They can only wear dress pants, and I don't think that the sandwich would do too well in a hip pocket.

 

[tumblrbailey]

As far as the cost goes, in my HS cafeteria, an Al a Carte entree is 2.50, chips are .75, and a bottle of water is a dollar. I usually brown bag chips and a Gatorade, then buy a chicken sandwich. The lines aren't long and I usually get in and out in five minutes, leaving twenty to eat. And we get a full ten minutes in between classes!

 

[erincon23]

My kids brown bag, but I put the brown bag in a plastic grocery sack with a blue ice right underneath the brown bag. Then they just pull the brown bag out of the backpack (whether it's in the locker or with them), and bring home the blue ice every day. This has kept their sandwiches and drinks cold enough that I haven't worried about them getting sick.

 

[bumbershoot]

Wow, when I was in high school and all the high schoolers where we live, go off campus for lunch. We have 2 high schools by work and us girls in the office have to plan when to go to lunch every day, we go early or late to miss the mobs of high school kids. Do they not do that everywhere?? Never ever would have brought lunch to school!! NEVER! My how times change....(I have only been out of school 10 years.....really it's not THAT long ago is it?)

My graduation was in '87, I went to school in the Bay Area...my HS was a closed campus and that happened after a horrific accident that happened during an off-campus lunch break. One survivor. I was in junior/middle HS at the time. They also took the hallway lockers out just before my class got there thanks to the vandalism that was happening. Sigh.

So no, not all schools have open campuses.

 

[mjkacmom]

My DS brings lunch almost every day (extra large brown lunch bag) partly becuase he likes the lunches I make but also, partly because it's just too expensive to buy lunch in his school cafeteria each day.

It's so expensive! The price just increased this year, and for an entree, side, vegetable (actually the kids really do eat them, because the food is really good), drink and dessert, runs about $6. Everything is a la carte so you don't have to spend that much, but the boys do eat a pretty good sized meal. I realize that his school cafeteria is independant, not part of a public school district, so their costs are higher, less buying power.
But, just curious....
how much do your HS lunches run?

Ours is only $3, but our school takes a loss on lunch. Most kids eat out, and there are so many options within walking distance, with $5 specials (burgers, wing place, diner, burger king, bagel store, subway, a few pizzarias, grocery store with sandwiches and salad bar, chinese, tai, yogurt, smoothie place, sushi...).

 

[Sgt Mickey]

I bought my son a bag to use becasue I don't want to be throwing things away everyday when we can reuse one thing and not get in the habit of just throwing things away.