School Lunch for Kindergarten

[Anonymous]

I have a kindergarten and 1st grade children. They both say they want to buy lunch everyday this year. Do many kindergarten students buy? Does someone help them with thier tray and to select their food? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Have you seen school lunches? I saw them in Montgomery County and Fairfax. Burger Kings food looks more attractive and healthy compared to them. I allow my child to buy a lunch once in two weeks...

[Anonymous]

My kindergartners bring because they don't get much time to eat - and would have even less if they had to wait in line.

[Anonymous]

Well, lots and lots of K kids buy their lunch. My older DD was in a small private K, but has gone to FCPS since first (she is now in 3rd.) I don't encourage her to buy because 1) the food is not healthy and 2) I agree with the PP about the time issue. The line to buy can be HUGE and they barely get any time to eat as it is IMO.

[Anonymous]

DS gets to buy once a week, when they serve pizza.

[Anonymous]

I agree that school lunch just isn't my idea of tasty food. However, DS seems to love it. At the beginning of the year (last year), he always took his lunch because, frankly, being in line and all the choices, really confused him. There are people there to help the kids in line but there's still the pressure to make a decision - NOW. After a few weeks, we reviewed the menu before leaving for school and decided what he was going to eat. I joined him at lunch, went through the line with him and reminded him of what we decided he was going to get. We did it again the next day. After that, he was fine. We still review the menu and decide what he's going to eat, or not. Once he got used to it, he started trying some other stuff on the fly - like a pretzel or frozen fruit bar. It's just a little intimidating in the beginning.

[Anonymous]

Lots of kindergarteners buy, including my kids when they were in kindergarten. It was rare when my kids didn't have time to finish their lunches due to long lines and when this occurred, the principal would take the kids who hadn't finished to another area where they could complete their meal. As for choices, in our school, the kids got to choose between two meals. Choices were made in the morning before kids even hit the lunch line. The school sends home a menu each month and they post a monthly menu on the website so parents can see what their kids are eating and help them choose their meal if that is necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS gets to buy once a week, when they serve pizza.

My now 1st grader did this last year and we've continued this year so far.

[Anonymous]

We let him buy pizza, too. Otherwise, both he and I prefer home lunches.

[Anonymous]

MCPS school lunch = nasty

[Anonymous]

Lots of children in my daughter's kindergarten class buy lunch although many of them get free/reduced lunch. We were advised that since they don't have a lot of time for lunch they should bring it, at least for the first few weeks. so they get used to eating more quickly.

She is anxious to buy her lunch though so we'll probably let her do it once a week. They send the menu home so she can choose when she wants to buy lunch.

I don't think they need that much help and if they do, the cafeteria workers (at least the ones at our school) are very helpful and nice.