Out of curiosity I asked the cafeteria to send my middle schooler's cafeteria records home. In addition to the regular lunch, he's been getting a snack every day, so we discussed getting snack only once a week.

One thing: they sell a yogurt parfait which counts as a milk item but which is over 300 calories according to the MCPS website. Add that to a regular lunch and he's eating as much as 800 calories in a meal.

He also told me that you don't have to buy a meal to get the snacks and many kids (not him, from what I can see on the list) will get four cookies and that's it for lunch.

Here is the deal:
MCPS sells snacks at school at the principal's discretion. The profits earned are put into a pool of money to help pay the cafeteria workers (this is what was told to me by a community superintendant)
The snacks are supposed to be from an approved list and can be bought only after it is determined that the student has successfully eaten their regular lunch. (Determined by who is subjective).
The kicker is that snacks are not being sold after the student eats their regular lunch, snacks are being sold in multiples so even in the snack is approved to be a low cal on, buying 5 brownies would negate this thinking.
And, if schools are only accepting cash payment for snacks, they are circumventing the wellness plan as the previous poster pointed out. Paying cash for snacks also limits the recordable transactions for the school based on eligibility (FARMS).
So yes, you can limit snacks on the SNAP account, but not if the school only sells snacks as cash only.

How did this turn snarky? The OP was just asking what the deal was. Thanks to those who give productive answers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well 13:13, OP is the type who can't say no to little snowflakes. Blaming the school is way easier.

Well let me turn this around on you my dear. Why can't you just send a baggie of Oreos in with your special snowflake if they can't live without a treat. Why can't your special snowflake wait until they get home to have ice cream?

This is a stupid distraction that serves no value. The lunchroom is chaotic enough and the teacher/volunteer lunch assistants have enough to do without selling snacks. Lunch is short and its common for the K-2nd graders to not eat as much they should due to time constraints. Why should I have to teach my kid to wolf down food like a pig to have enough time to get back in line for a snack or say no just so your special snowflake gets a school provided treat. Just get off your butt and send it yourself.

Are you that dense? You are talking to me like I asked MCPS to sell snacks.

Mine does not like the cheap stuff they sell so she does wait until she's home to have ice cream. Thanks for asking.

Did you have a bad day? Your "snowflakes" comment is plain mean.

Anonymous wrote:

Well 13:13, OP is the type who can't say no to little snowflakes. Blaming the school is way easier.

Well let me turn this around on you my dear. Why can't you just send a baggie of Oreos in with your special snowflake if they can't live without a treat. Why can't your special snowflake wait until they get home to have ice cream?

This is a stupid distraction that serves no value. The lunchroom is chaotic enough and the teacher/volunteer lunch assistants have enough to do without selling snacks. Lunch is short and its common for the K-2nd graders to not eat as much they should due to time constraints. Why should I have to teach my kid to wolf down food like a pig to have enough time to get back in line for a snack or say no just so your special snowflake gets a school provided treat. Just get off your butt and send it yourself.

Are you that dense? You are talking to me like I asked MCPS to sell snacks.

Mine does not like the cheap stuff they sell so she does wait until she's home to have ice cream. Thanks for asking.

OP I don't really care if DD has ice cream or cookies. The logistics of this is stupid. The treats are not sold in the same line as the lunch food. The kids who buy stand in line to get food, sit down and then get back in a snack line. The packers sit down to eat and then stand in line to get snacks. There isn't much time for lunch to begin with so adding in the snack line is just dumb for the younger kids.

This completely bugs me too!.

Here is the solution I reached last year with my then 2nd grader. She was allowed to buy lunch 1 day/week but was also buying cookies and crap. A friend suggested I should use this as an opportunity for her to learn fiscal management rather than as a battle ground (I am a bit of a health nut and hate the school lunch crap to start with).

So, at the beginning of each semester I fund her account with enough money for 1 lunch + 1 snack/ week. If she chooses more snacks, she skips her school lunch here and there. I think on balance it's probably just as healthy to bring a healthy lunch from home more often and eat a few more cookies. So it's kind of a wash and I don't worry about it. When she's out of $ for the semester, she's packing lunch every day. She definately takes this responsibility as her own now -- so it's a good solution for us.

Well 13:13, OP is the type who can't say no to little snowflakes. Blaming the school is way easier.

Well let me turn this around on you my dear. Why can't you just send a baggie of Oreos in with your special snowflake if they can't live without a treat. Why can't your special snowflake wait until they get home to have ice cream?

This is a stupid distraction that serves no value. The lunchroom is chaotic enough and the teacher/volunteer lunch assistants have enough to do without selling snacks. Lunch is short and its common for the K-2nd graders to not eat as much they should due to time constraints. Why should I have to teach my kid to wolf down food like a pig to have enough time to get back in line for a snack or say no just so your special snowflake gets a school provided treat. Just get off your butt and send it yourself.

Anonymous wrote:Well 13:13, OP is the type who can't say no to little snowflakes. Blaming the school is way easier.

I"m not the OP but ... I did say no to my little snowflakes when this came up. However, not all parents will -- and why add to the burden of unhealthy eating and obesity by selling this crap to kids at school? What kind of message does that send? And the "ice cream" they sell is just horrible quality and really bad for you. Why do we allow this kind of stuff to be sold to kids in school?

I'm moving to Denmark. Harrrumph.

Well 13:13, OP is the type who can't say no to little snowflakes. Blaming the school is way easier.

This is not new at our MCPS ES. When you send in $$ for your child's lunch account, you can indicate no snacks if you don't want them to be able to purchase them.

I pack my DC's lunch each day, but I have $20 on a lunch account just in case (he once forgot to pull the lunch out of the refridgerator and put in his backpack in the AM). I can see if he's using that $$ to buy snacks by the statements .... at one point the balance was going down so I asked him about it. When he told me that he was using it to buy "treats", I put a restriction on his account.

DS told me about this last night while we were packing his lunch. He is in kindergarten, I struggle to get him to eat his lunch as it is, and I am not a no sugar freak, I even pack some type of treat in his lunch (jello, pudding, etc) when I asked what else he wanted in his lunch he said "cash! I want to buy a snack like ice cream or sweets"
Greeeaaat.

It is a money making thing and it's really surprising that it is still allowable under the wellness plan of MCPS. Shameful, IMO. But good luck fighting it because of people like PP who want to make sure their children have access to nasty, fake ice-cream-like "treats."

Don't buy it if you don't want to. What's the big deal?

My first grader came home and asked if she could buy special snack on her class day? From her report, there is one day each week when particular grades in the lunch room can buy an extra snack like ice cream. I don't really care if she has ice cream on Thursdays but I don't think logistically this is great. She is a good eater but a slow eater. She often doesn't have time to finish her lunch (we pack so she doesn't lose time in line) and ends up eating a huge dinner.

I also wonder why the school is doing this? Is this a money making thing? Do they really worry that the kids are not getting enough sugar? Its ironic that they are now selling ice cream at lunch but think its too cold for the kids to go outside and play.