School lunch

[Anonymous]

Do you do school lunch or send your child with a packed lunch from home? If the former, are you happy with the quality of the food?

[Anonymous]

Our DCPS uses Sodexo and my picky eater packs about half or slightly more than half of the time. She says other kids like it, but it’s Sodexo more likely kid friendly, not actually good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our DCPS uses Sodexo and my picky eater packs about half or slightly more than half of the time. She says other kids like it, but it’s Sodexo more likely kid friendly, not actually good.

My 6th and 4th grader have been eating school lunch since PK3, and while it may not be perfect, in full honesty it is a wider variety than what I end up making during the summer camp weeks. Unless you are one of the lucky schools that get DC Central Kitchen, the food is average, but always has a mix of vegetables, fruit, protein, grains, and salad. And not having to buy/plan lunch during the week has been a plus for us, and at our school the meals are free which is a plus as well.

[Anonymous]

I pack my child’s lunch everyday because I think the school lunch has way too much sugar and salt (although the breakfast is even worse). But I work in a school so I get to see the food they serve young children every day. Hence why my child doesn’t eat school lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our DCPS uses Sodexo and my picky eater packs about half or slightly more than half of the time. She says other kids like it, but it’s Sodexo more likely kid friendly, not actually good.

My 6th and 4th grader have been eating school lunch since PK3, and while it may not be perfect, in full honesty it is a wider variety than what I end up making during the summer camp weeks. Unless you are one of the lucky schools that get DC Central Kitchen, the food is average, but always has a mix of vegetables, fruit, protein, grains, and salad. And not having to buy/plan lunch during the week has been a plus for us, and at our school the meals are free which is a plus as well.

Oh I completely agree! The quality may be iffy, but the variety is great and there is plenty of fresh fruits and veggies, salad options 1-2x a week, etc. Mine says yes to the salads, sunbutter sandwiches, and breakfast for lunch items (parfait, French toast, etc.), nachos, and a few other things. Won’t eat the school versions of things she eats at home, which is annoying since it’s free for us too.

[Anonymous]

We do school lunch because it is free for all and easy. I’d rather it was a bit healthier but it’s fine. My 1st grader’s friends that pack lunch wind up still eating the most appealing/least healthy parts of the s hill lunch along with the most preferred parts of their home lunch anyway. So I’m not sure packing lunch would help much with healthfulness. I don’t think I’d pay for it if it wasn’t free for all.

[Anonymous]

I pack a lunch because my kid is extremely picky and when we tried having her do school lunch, she just went hungry. Her packed lunch is less variety than school lunch (almost the same thing daily with small changes), but she eats it and I also know exactly where the food came from. But if she'd eat the school last nch, I'd definitely have her eat that at least half the time.

[Anonymous]

I wish my kid ate the school lunch. It’s definitely a wide range of options and would be great to be more flexible. I’m not sure it’s the pinnacle of healthy food but it’s not horrendous— very few things with a ton of sugar. (The breakfast seems like the bigger problem as far as sugar is concerned.)

However, she went on hunger strike and the teachers advised me to just start packing her lunch— they were super worried she wasn’t eating anything. So now we pack. She’s still little (preschool). We may try it again next year.

[Anonymous]

My kid recently confessed to me that he would routinely not eat school lunch because it was so bad, and just went hungry, and yet would say no if offered a home lunch. Now, lunches are even worse, so he's finally agreed to bring lunch from home.

[Anonymous]

Both of my kids DCPS schools (ES and MS) recently were switched to Aramark. I'm waiting to see if they're better than Sodexo was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our DCPS uses Sodexo and my picky eater packs about half or slightly more than half of the time. She says other kids like it, but it’s Sodexo more likely kid friendly, not actually good.

My 6th and 4th grader have been eating school lunch since PK3, and while it may not be perfect, in full honesty it is a wider variety than what I end up making during the summer camp weeks. Unless you are one of the lucky schools that get DC Central Kitchen, the food is average, but always has a mix of vegetables, fruit, protein, grains, and salad. And not having to buy/plan lunch during the week has been a plus for us, and at our school the meals are free which is a plus as well.

Same here, for my 7th grader. He actually likes the food most of the time too. His only wish is that his lunch period is later because he's starving by the end of the day.

[Anonymous]

I pack lunches and feed them breakfast because my kids don't like the school food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid recently confessed to me that he would routinely not eat school lunch because it was so bad, and just went hungry, and yet would say no if offered a home lunch. Now, lunches are even worse, so he's finally agreed to bring lunch from home.

Why was he saying no to home lunch? Is it because everyone else was eating school lunch?

[Anonymous]

The school lunches at E.W. Stokes Brookland and Mundo Verde Cook are excellent. I would happily eat there myself and have my kids get school lunch every day. I haven't seen anywhere else that is good, but my work hasn't taken me into every school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid recently confessed to me that he would routinely not eat school lunch because it was so bad, and just went hungry, and yet would say no if offered a home lunch. Now, lunches are even worse, so he's finally agreed to bring lunch from home.

Why was he saying no to home lunch? Is it because everyone else was eating school lunch?

Because stuff that happened several hours later was too far away/abstract to worry about. He's an eternal optimist, personality-wise. Saying yes to home lunch meant answering more questions about what he wanted, which was a deterrent. I didn't think to impose the home lunch rule and didn't know he was barely eating some of the lunches.