So if kids only have 20 minutes to eat, how can they stand in line to buy food and eat that quickly?

Anonymous wrote:Please ignore the ignorance - first time K parent and our current pre-K provided lunch. For MCPS students, we should assume packed lunch and after school snacks will be left at room temperature all day? So do parents pack ice packs? Are parents sending separate lunchboxes for lunch and after school snacks? Do we pack all utensils and napkins too? Any tips for making it not get too heavy? TIA!

My kids like hot lunches and I send a thermos and also pack a spoon/fork and napkins. I do pack snacks separately.

Our Ks bought lunch in the cafeteria, at first only sometimes and then soon all the time. I think they ate a lot of grilled cheese.

Anonymous wrote:Oh and you need an in school snack. In K they have snack time. So kids bring cut up fruit or goldfish etc. no nuts allowed usually.

Not true that all classes have snacks. Ask the teacher.

Our after care provides snack, so we do a small snack for school and then a lunch in a refrigerated bag with ice packs. And make sure your kindergartener can open everything in the lunch bag! There are people there to help, but it takes time to get someone to come over, and that means your kid may not have time to finish lunch. It's not that long with all the time it takes to wrangle them and get them to sit down.

Oh and you need an in school snack. In K they have snack time. So kids bring cut up fruit or goldfish etc. no nuts allowed usually.

Room temp only. Pack ice packs. Snacks separately. Don't pack things with utencils unless they are used to it. They have 20 min to eat and need to be able to open and eat their lunch while chatting. Practice making sure they can open all of their lunch containers themselves. Lunch times can be wacky. My K had lunch at 11:20 and the 3rd grader at 1:15. We do a big protein filled breakfast for both.
My K kid likes hot lunch so we got wide mouth thermoses (s'well) and she packed Mac and cheese and mashed potatoes and beans and rice all year.

Please ignore the ignorance - first time K parent and our current pre-K provided lunch. For MCPS students, we should assume packed lunch and after school snacks will be left at room temperature all day? So do parents pack ice packs? Are parents sending separate lunchboxes for lunch and after school snacks? Do we pack all utensils and napkins too? Any tips for making it not get too heavy? TIA!