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Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)
Spin off from self-sufficient Kindergartener thread - does everyone pack a lunch?
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Anonymous
| My husband is so excited about the prospect of not having to make a lunch for my incoming K'er (he's been on KP duty for three years now) - but is there a reason why my child SHOULDN't eat the school lunch? |
Anonymous
| I have looked at the menus, and it seems like a lot of fried or processed food. Not a lot of fresh fruits or vegetables. |
Anonymous
| The lunches aren't super inspiring. They do make a real effort at healthful eating - baked chicken nuggets, surprising amount of vegetarian options, and fresh fruit offered at every meal. However, it will be up to your child what s/he puts on his/her tray - I know my son NEVER took a piece of fruit, and when I volunteered I saw many kids primarily focused on eating the cookie and the chocolate milk... not the worst thing ever, but still. We eventually settled into a pattern where our K student only wanted to get the pizza on Fridays, which was OK by us. Unfortunately he was usually too social to eat much whether school lunch or home. |
Anonymous
| My kids LOVE school lunch. They don't sound so great to me, but they will come home talking about what they ate. So, no, I don't pack lunches. |
Anonymous
I would pack in the beginning. Dealing with the line, tray, payment system/code is alot in the beginning. My kids never buy because they hate to wait on line..and that is ok with me because I have looked at the nutirional content of the menus (on the mcps website) and they don't cut it. I of course would be happy for an occaissional break though 
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Anonymous
| BTW...if your school is at all crowded, the lines can be substantial especially on pizza Friday. |
Anonymous
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I plan on making lunches even though I dread making lunches. The schools may be making an attempt at offering some healthier options but they really miss the mark. They spend so little on food, its all processed, and its presented in a way that the kids are going to choose the junk. The nuggets may be baked rather than fried but come on..it is still overly processed chicken waste products. I'm not even that into healthy food and we certainly don't do organic but this stuff is not healthy. I do not understand why a school feels the need to serve chocolate milk. Why add so much sugar to their diet?
My kids will eat healthy food but only the ones they like. There is no way they will go for mushy overcooked veggies. I'm lucky that they each like a few vegetables that I can send. I think you either decide that you're OK if they will eat junk for lunch and then have a healthy dinner and breakfast or pack your own. |
Anonymous
| You shouldn't underestimate the wait to get lunch (esp. in the beginning when they are all trying to remember their PINs). The kids already have much less time to eat than they are probably used to, and if it's take 15 mins to get lunch they have almost no time. The biggest complaint I hear from K kids in the Fall at least is the lack of time to eat. |
Anonymous
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My older son started school wanting school lunch. I sent him without packing a lunch the first day. He came home and told me to start packing his lunch.
The food looked inedible to him. My younger one refused to even try school lunch, even on pizza days. He was -- and still is -- worried about not having enough time to eat the food b/c standing in line takes so much time. Between the lack of the health value in the school lunch (they really do look horrible -- no fresh fruit, unidentifiable foods, chocolate milk and cookies), I'm actually happy my kids would rather eat what we pack them. |
Anonymous
| My niece and nephew said they spent almost the whole lunch period in line waiting to buy milk, so when mine went to kindergarten we packed lunch and water instead of doing school lunch or milk. |
Anonymous
You are so from New York. 
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Anonymous
Lol, so am I, and it took a couple of readings to catch what gave pp away. Haven't been razzed about on line since freshman year of college. |
Anonymous
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I pack lunches for both my kids in reusable containers they bring home. Packing lunch this way is the only way to know if they've eaten anything at all at school. Of course, if I told them this they would miraculously find a way to dump the container contents to impress me with their faux appetites.
Though it clearly sounds otherwise, I'm not actually a freak about this. They are both on stimulant meds for ADHD and I actually do need to know if they are eating. |
Anonymous
I completely agree with this. I know that the schools are trying, but I know my child: he will pick the junkiest food available. I especially agree with the chicken nuggets analogy. This food is NOT good for our children. |
Anonymous
| 21:32..New York? No I am not..not even close..what made you think so? |