How many choices do kids have other than regular school lunch (elementary)?

[Anonymous]

ALT LNCH, PT SIDE, SNACK, JUICE-4, JUICE-6... What are those?

Will you let your DC buy whatever they want?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ALT LNCH, PT SIDE, SNACK, JUICE-4, JUICE-6... What are those?

Will you let your DC buy whatever they want?

What county is this?

In Montgomery County, the menu is posted online:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/foodserv/menus/elementary_lunch.aspx

There are always two main choices, and the school also has grilled cheese or PBJ as well on hand.

[Anonymous]

I asked my (elementary) kid about this last year after I noticed some of these things coming up on the My School Bucks history.

I learned that you can buy juice (you get water or milk w/ the lunch but juice is extra), snacks (was told these were like brownies or a cookie), and even extra servings (for instance, they could get another piece of pizza if there was enough). I think you can also buy extra fruit too. The MCPS website says you can contact your cafeteria manager if you want to restrict what your kid can buy. I just talked to my kid and said no more extra snacks or juice-- honestly, I think he was just getting stuff b/c his friends were and didn't think twice about it being extra.

[Anonymous]

We had regular lunch visit time that parents can go at our school in another state, what I saw surprised me - there were a huge amount of waste, the whole tray of food without being touched went directly to the trash can happened quite often everyday... giving extra choices ( not any more healthier at all) to, at lease the lower elementary level kids is really not what the system should do. as the pp said, the kids buy what other kids do, without thinking (twice- or not at all).

[Anonymous]

We’re in MCPS and at our elementary school, there are two lunch options each day or you can always get a bagel and cream cheese. For snacks, kids can buy chips, ice cream, Craisins or string cheese.

[Anonymous]

Ridiculous that cookies, brownies, and ice cream are available.

My dd usually takes her lunch from home and the other day I saw a cookie wrapper and asked about it-- she said it was for sale in the lunch line...

[Anonymous]

I've seen kids trash the lunch and eat the "snack"- why offer snack during lunch?! or even bother to offer snack at school. parent are asked to pack snack everyday and donate snack to classroom as an backup- in case someone forget.

[Anonymous]

Mine quickly stopped buying lunch after a few bad experiences in kindergarten, but there was still a bit of money in the account whenever they sent home the updates. I realized at one point that it was dwindling a little at a time, even though she hadn't bought lunch in years. Turned out she was buying ice cream (available only on Wednesdays) without telling us.

[Anonymous]

At our school they sell snacks to subsidize the lunch budget - not enough kids buy lunch for it to be self-sustaining without selling snacks. Or so they say.

[Anonymous]

Glad my kids don't have a lunch account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had regular lunch visit time that parents can go at our school in another state, what I saw surprised me - there were a huge amount of waste, the whole tray of food without being touched went directly to the trash can happened quite often everyday... giving extra choices ( not any more healthier at all) to, at lease the lower elementary level kids is really not what the system should do. as the pp said, the kids buy what other kids do, without thinking (twice- or not at all).

That's surprising. The couple of elementary and middle schools that I've been to in MCPS have a table set up for donating untouched food items (juice, milk, fruit, sealed snacks) and there was some emphasis on kids not wasting food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had regular lunch visit time that parents can go at our school in another state, what I saw surprised me - there were a huge amount of waste, the whole tray of food without being touched went directly to the trash can happened quite often everyday... giving extra choices ( not any more healthier at all) to, at lease the lower elementary level kids is really not what the system should do. as the pp said, the kids buy what other kids do, without thinking (twice- or not at all).

That's surprising. The couple of elementary and middle schools that I've been to in MCPS have a table set up for donating untouched food items (juice, milk, fruit, sealed snacks) and there was some emphasis on kids not wasting food.

That's a great idea as long as someone is confirming they are untouched! And non perishables (sealed snacks, juice) could also be put into the food drive bin).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had regular lunch visit time that parents can go at our school in another state, what I saw surprised me - there were a huge amount of waste, the whole tray of food without being touched went directly to the trash can happened quite often everyday... giving extra choices ( not any more healthier at all) to, at lease the lower elementary level kids is really not what the system should do. as the pp said, the kids buy what other kids do, without thinking (twice- or not at all).

That's surprising. The couple of elementary and middle schools that I've been to in MCPS have a table set up for donating untouched food items (juice, milk, fruit, sealed snacks) and there was some emphasis on kids not wasting food.

That's a great idea as long as someone is confirming they are untouched! And non perishables (sealed snacks, juice) could also be put into the food drive bin).

From a 30,000 foot view... the whole school providing meals seems wasteful, expensive, and enormously under used.
How about cancelling school meals period. I cafeteria costs, no food worker costs, no waste (and no fraud). The millions saved could be placed into a meals on wheels type program... call it ‘bagged lunch on wheels’ and it could be funded by means tested vouchers. This gives parents choice to choose the gender which provides the best lunch option for them (as well as breakfast and after school dinner meals for those in need). It will force vendors to meet the actual demands of the consumers. And it will take the Byzantine MCPS administration out of the process. Now that’s some innovation!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had regular lunch visit time that parents can go at our school in another state, what I saw surprised me - there were a huge amount of waste, the whole tray of food without being touched went directly to the trash can happened quite often everyday... giving extra choices ( not any more healthier at all) to, at lease the lower elementary level kids is really not what the system should do. as the pp said, the kids buy what other kids do, without thinking (twice- or not at all).

That's surprising. The couple of elementary and middle schools that I've been to in MCPS have a table set up for donating untouched food items (juice, milk, fruit, sealed snacks) and there was some emphasis on kids not wasting food.

That's a great idea as long as someone is confirming they are untouched! And non perishables (sealed snacks, juice) could also be put into the food drive bin).

From a 30,000 foot view... the whole school providing meals seems wasteful, expensive, and enormously under used.
How about cancelling school meals period. I cafeteria costs, no food worker costs, no waste (and no fraud). The millions saved could be placed into a meals on wheels type program... call it ‘bagged lunch on wheels’ and it could be funded by means tested vouchers. This gives parents choice to choose the gender which provides the best lunch option for them (as well as breakfast and after school dinner meals for those in need). It will force vendors to meet the actual demands of the consumers. And it will take the Byzantine MCPS administration out of the process. Now that’s some innovation!

I don’t understand what you mean by “gender” here. How does that even matter? Are you also suggesting that only students who qualify for free and reduced meals would even be eligible to buy a lunch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had regular lunch visit time that parents can go at our school in another state, what I saw surprised me - there were a huge amount of waste, the whole tray of food without being touched went directly to the trash can happened quite often everyday... giving extra choices ( not any more healthier at all) to, at lease the lower elementary level kids is really not what the system should do. as the pp said, the kids buy what other kids do, without thinking (twice- or not at all).

That's surprising. The couple of elementary and middle schools that I've been to in MCPS have a table set up for donating untouched food items (juice, milk, fruit, sealed snacks) and there was some emphasis on kids not wasting food.

That's a great idea as long as someone is confirming they are untouched! And non perishables (sealed snacks, juice) could also be put into the food drive bin).

From a 30,000 foot view... the whole school providing meals seems wasteful, expensive, and enormously under used.
How about cancelling school meals period. I cafeteria costs, no food worker costs, no waste (and no fraud). The millions saved could be placed into a meals on wheels type program... call it ‘bagged lunch on wheels’ and it could be funded by means tested vouchers. This gives parents choice to choose the gender which provides the best lunch option for them (as well as breakfast and after school dinner meals for those in need). It will force vendors to meet the actual demands of the consumers. And it will take the Byzantine MCPS administration out of the process. Now that’s some innovation!

I don’t understand what you mean by “gender” here. How does that even matter? Are you also suggesting that only students who qualify for free and reduced meals would even be eligible to buy a lunch?

I’m not pp, but I’m assuming “gender” was a typo and was meant to be “vendor.”