Do only free lunch kids buy lunch on 1st day of school in kindergarten?

[Anonymous]

Funny post OP.

What a strange and weird thing to think about OP.

But if you really must know, my kids brought lunch on the first day for several reasons:

1) I wanted to pack them a special first day lunch with extra treats and a little good luck note tucked inside. Can't stick a note on their lunch tray...

2) Since I have older kids I know that the fcps lunches are not necessarily tasty and also that they come in unreasonably small portions. My kids have been eating at will all summer so I knew they would be hungry with the meager school lunch so I wanted to make sure they had enough food that they would like to eat rather than small portion school lunches half of which got thrown out.

3) My older kid has memorized the fcps lunch rotation. Apparently whatever they usually serve on the first Tuesday of the month is not very good, so he made the decision for himself and his younger sibling that they were NOT buying lunch this Tuesday. They bought on Wednesday because that day apparently has good lunches the first week of the month.

4) My kids were excited about their new lunch boxes

5) I knew they would be bringing on day one so I did not load the $$ onto their IDs yet.

[Anonymous]

Oh my. I was kind of excited about the idea of my K child buying lunch - our district provides pretty healthy choices, yay! But…DC won't eat them (combinations seem weird to DC). And DC was excited about the lunchbox. So DC brings lunch. I've put money into the pin-controlled system so DC can buy lunch, at some point.

I remember the free/reduced meal tickets from when I was in high school - and the look on the face of a student when I told her she couldn't use the ticket at the student-government-run lunch stand where I worked once a week (tickets could only be used in the cafeteria).

OP, why do you care?

[Anonymous]

I don't know, OP. I imagine that a lot of kids didn't buy lunch on the first day because their moms were told that it's a good idea to pack a lunch on the first day, to give kids time to figure out the lunch routine. And some kids probably didn't buy because they didn't like what was served.

My kid didn't want the lunch on the first day, so I packed one for her. She wanted the cafeteria lunch yesterday, but I packed a lunchables just in case she couldn't figure out how to get through the line and needed a plan B.

[Anonymous]

Oh FFS. Seriously? This is the kind of crap we have to deal with now that our kid is in school? This kind of crappy parent? Lord help us all. OP you suck. You really, really do.

[Anonymous]

My kid begged to buy lunch, since she was SO excited to try out the cafeteria, now that she is a big K kid!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop marginalizing innocent children.

I'm not. We live in a diverse neighborhood. I'm genuinely just curious.

I married a free lunch kid. DH worked his ass off and has an ivy league education. He hated having the free lunch ticket. Now he earns a very high six figure income. I actually hope DS becomes friends with kids from different backgrounds.

Was that explanation supposed to make your OP sound better?! Because it really did not...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: 350k HHI. my kindergardner bought lunch and wanted to type his pin in. We also have a nanny who can cook and pack lunch if needed. We assume he may get bored of the school lunch and will bring in from home as needed in the future.

Same here. My son also decided he didn't want to wear any of his new stuff, so off he went wearing *GASP* a soccer jersey he's had for a couple years and a pair of shorts I got him at the beginning of the summer. If the OP saw him in the lunch line at her kid's school, she probably pegged him as one of TEH POORS !

[Anonymous]

My kid bought lunch. It was a lunch he liked and I didn't have to worry about another thing the night before. He seems to like buying his lunch- same thing other posters mentioned with the keypad. He feels like a "big kid" when he uses it. As a bonus, the price of lunch is really good - a lot less than if I tried to put something together like that. Hopefully he'll keep buying the rest of the year.

[Anonymous]

In my experience almost all the kids buying lunch at the school get it for free. Most others bring from home

[Anonymous]

My kid buys lunch every day. In fact my credit card is linked to the school lunch account so it automatically reloads his account every month. There. I am officially the worlds most uncaring parent. Humorously no one packed my lunch for me in school either and I turned out fine. Clearly I come from a long line of uncaring parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: 350k HHI. my kindergardner bought lunch and wanted to type his pin in. We also have a nanny who can cook and pack lunch if needed. We assume he may get bored of the school lunch and will bring in from home as needed in the future.

Same here. My son also decided he didn't want to wear any of his new stuff, so off he went wearing *GASP* a soccer jersey he's had for a couple years and a pair of shorts I got him at the beginning of the summer. If the OP saw him in the lunch line at her kid's school, she probably pegged him as one of TEH POORS !

LOL. My kid nixed my choice of a polo in favor of a hand me down character t-shirt from his older brother. Elementary boy fashion sensibility trumps social status.

[Anonymous]

Well, if it is the FARMs kids buying lunch on the first day, at least you can tell your DC that those are the kids to stay away from. Might want to do so just to be on the safe side. Even more so if the FARMs kids have accents - you can be assured your DC will come to failure if they hang around such kids for long.

[Anonymous]

The OP quizzes her child on who bought lunch versus who brought a lunch?

How oddly obsessed and way to pass it on to your kid...

[Anonymous]

I was going to pack my kid lunch every day because the school lunches are not healthy. But then he went to K orientation and heard about "hot lunch" and was super excited that he could get a "hot lunch." I don't even think he knew what it was, but he begged me to let him buy, so I loaded money onto his pin for the first day and he was apparently quite happy with his choice. The second day he brought lunch that I made him, and today he is buying again because 1-it's pizza day and usually kids buy on that one day, and 2-it's easier for me because I don't have to pack his lunch in the morning.

We'll probably let him buy lunch one day a week and pack it for him the rest of the days, although if I'm feeling lazy I'll just let him buy it. We're not FARM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, if it is the FARMs kids buying lunch on the first day, at least you can tell your DC that those are the kids to stay away from. Might want to do so just to be on the safe side. Even more so if the FARMs kids have accents - you can be assured your DC will come to failure if they hang around such kids for long.

OP - My kid has bought lunch at school every day starting with the first day of kindergarten five years ago. I work full-time and I'm not interested in packing a lunch every day. He either eats what they have at school or he doesn't eat. It's his choice.

But if you want to know who the FARM kids are, look at who's buying breakfast. That's probably a better indicator than lunch. Of course, now that they have PINs instead of "free" tickets, it's hard to tell who's a FARM and who's not. I like it better that way - more privacy for the kids. My DS (not FARM, no accent) LOVES breakfast. He eats at home every morning and then when he gets to school goes to the cafeteria and buys another one. (It's the most important meal of the day, right?) DH and I have no problem with it and his mylunchmoney account is funded accordingly. But I'm pretty sure at least some of the cafeteria workers and other breakfast-buying kids think he's a FARM. I know one of his teachers did because she gently asked me if we were "food insecure" at home when she saw how much he ate. I wish I had his metabolism!