New to cafeteria lunch - how does it work?

[Anonymous]

My kindergartener really wants to try cafeteria lunch, but we've only done home lunch up to this point. I just put money on his school bucks card. Now what? Can he go to school on Monday and tell the teacher he's doing cafeteria and she'll handle it? He explained to me some sort of color-coded card system but I'm not sure if I need to do anything else at this point. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

I just did this with my 1st grader, but I gave him cash so I wasn't as prepared as you were.

The teacher should have the pin #, which your kid will give the cafeteria lady to purchase. S/he should be able to access this too, with your child's name and teacher's name. Most kids make their choice in the classroom, I think, so they're not caught off guard in the lunch line.

My child came home having memorized his pin #, and he had three separate post-its where nice teachers/lunch ladies had written it down for him. It was so cute and reassuring!

You \might ask the teacher to pair your child up with another kid who is savvy about buying - I did, and it wasn't necessary, but she was on top of it.

[Anonymous]

Why don't you just tell him to figure it out, and send him with a lunch just in case it doesn't work. If it doesn't work, ask him who he can ask to solve this mystery. Empower him to help himself rather than doing it all for him, you know? It can't be rocket science to buy school lunch. Surely he can just follow some other kids who are buying and do whatever they do.

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher and have worked in a few schools and they all have systems similar to this:

Students come in to the classroom in the morning. They put away their things and hand in their homework. If they brought a lunch they put it in the lunch bucket. Each student has 3 color-coded cards on their desk with their name on them. Each color stands for a different choice. At my current school, orange is for the regular choice, green is for the alternate choice and yellow is for grilled cheese, which is offered daily. The lunch choices are written on the board with the corresponding color next to them. If a student is buying lunch, they hand the card to the teacher or put it on the teacher's table. The teacher puts all the cards in a pouch and a student brings it to the cafeteria so they know how many of each lunch choice to prepare.

Your child has probably observed this process every day since the beginning of the year, so they'll know what to do. Just make sure they have a clear choice in mind. Also, when there have been snow days sometimes the choices change last minute, but it shouldn't be an issue next week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you just tell him to figure it out, and send him with a lunch just in case it doesn't work. If it doesn't work, ask him who he can ask to solve this mystery. Empower him to help himself rather than doing it all for him, you know? It can't be rocket science to buy school lunch. Surely he can just follow some other kids who are buying and do whatever they do.

You didn't even need to respond to this thread. Go back to living under your dirty rock you asshat.

[Anonymous]

they don't need the card, but do need to remember the pin number. Or you can write it down and keep in his pocket for a few days in case he forgets.