School Lunch Help

[jckdisneybound]

They may be used to buying lunch too. So what you could do, is have each child put $7 on their meal card, and you'r paying for 3.5 lunches a week vice 5, and hey that would help your sister out. Just an idea. And it would save you time from making 15 lunches.

That being said, my DD6 brings lunch everyday b/c if she buys she doesn't have enough time to actually eat it.

So we do a lot of ham and cheese roll up, mac n cheese in a thermos, grilled chesse (the child will not touch a pb & J sandwich to my dismay) if I make something like fried rice she will take that or brocolli cheese rice. Then she gets chips or some sort, something sweet, and a fruit.

 

[IDoDis]

Here are some things I do for my kids:

For the sandwiches I get everything else ready the night before and then do the sandwich in the morning so it's not soggy.

PB&J

Turkey sandwich on toasted bread

Quesadilla (melted cheese on a tortilla) with salsa in a little container

Little containers each of shredded cheese, shredded ham or turkey and a container of Ritz crackers. They can make their own "lunchable" for a lot cheaper.

A baggie of some kind of chips, pretzels or Chex Mix (they only get chips once a week)

Fruit (banana, peeled orange, baggie of grapes, or a fruit cup -- buy the large cans and split them up into small Rubbermaid containers)

Carrot sticks with some Ranch dressing in a little container

Deserts vary and they don't get them every day. Sometimes it's a couple of cookies, a granola bar, or a pudding or jello cup.

It would be hard to do it for $20 a week and have the lunches be healthy. Right now though, oranges seem to be a lot lower in price than they were in the past. Look for the specials on fruit and price match where you can.

I'm a teacher and after 15 years of watching kids eat in the cafeteria, I don't recommend parents send apples unless you know your child loves apples and that they WILL eat it. That is the fruit that gets tossed out the most whether it be in a home lunch or from the school. One bite and then it goes in the trash. It's such a shame because apples are expensive! I've had the kids give them to me before and I take them home. Our school principal will also have a big box by the trash cans for apples that are going to get tossed. She takes them to her horses.

 

[robinb]

I pack a lunch for work, so I buy a lot of the things I would be putting in their lunches anyway- but my sister would rather throw herself in front of a bus than make a meal. (As a result she wastes money on food.)
So anyway, i thought if I could do it for around $20/ week I would give it a try.

Your heart is in the right place {{hugs}}. However, if you make her kids meals then all you'll end up doing is enabling her processed food/eating out/ordering in behavior. She'll just have more money for that kind of thing. She's a grown up and with 4 1/2 kids she needs to come to the conclusion herself that making food from scratch is a lot cheaper than buying it pre-made. Sorry to be a wet blanket.

 

[DisneyfeverTN]

Your heart is in the right place {{hugs}}. However, if you make her kids meals then all you'll end up doing is enabling her processed food/eating out/ordering in behavior. She'll just have more money for that kind of thing. She's a grown up and with 4 1/2 kids she needs to come to the conclusion herself that making food from scratch is a lot cheaper than buying it pre-made. Sorry to be a wet blanket.

I agree. It is very nice of you to want to help her children out like that. But she chose to have them and it is her choice as to how she wants to take care of them. It sounds like the best bet for the school lunches is for her to look into a reduced lunch with the school.

I do think the ideas from the other posters are great. There are so many healthy things you can pack in a lunch. Maybe you could drop off the items and the kids could pack their own lunches. It seems like there might be a way you could help her or the kids do these things for themselves. Then again, maybe not. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. It's very kind of you to want to help her and her kids out though.

 

[ameraumi]

Here is the guideline for Free/Reduced lunches (page 3) http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/governance/notices/iegs/IEGs07-08.pdf. It looks like $51,000 for reduced lunches, $38,800 for free (family of 6). Our lunches are $1.75 and the reduced kids pay 40 cents. I really think you should have your sister check into that again as it may be much cheaper to have reduced lunches over packing. Plus if the kids are used to hot lunches they may not eat much out of a sack lunch.

ETA: I found on the USDA site this info: "Those with incomes between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level are eligible for reduced-price meals, for which students can be charged no more than 40 cents." So she really should see if they qualify since the most she would have to pay is 40 cents a day per child.

 

[disneymom3]

There are some GREAT ideas on this thread and as a mom who is having a child go off to school next year who has been homeschooled for 6 years, you can bet I am taking notes!

My one hint I have--for the apples, what I do when we pack a picnic lunch is to preslice the apples. Then to avoid them turning brown, I crush up a couple of vitamin C chewables in water and soak the apple slices in there as I get the rest of the lunch ready. Scoop them out of the water and let them drain a little bit and then put them in the little containers. Voila! Nice apples with no brown spots, a little added Vitamin C and I find my kids eat more apples when they are sliced.

 

[flying_babyb]

Im suprized no one has mentioned it but-
If you take a tortilla shell (you know the rollup kind that are 2.99 for 6 in the oriental isle at walmart) and add penut butter and jelly you end up with a wonderful odd sandwich. Think outside the bread box. Tortillas are healty (HFCS free) and cheap. You could add chese and meat and beans and have a taco, or you could add fruit and have a fruit roll up.... The possiblitys are endless!