I put a small ice pack in a plastic bag with cheese slices and a couple of crackers for my son. His lunch is at 1:15 so he has a snack at 10:30. The instructions for us is "1 item" but I consider this "cheese and crackers". I don't like the packaged cheese/peanut butter crackers, and I like to mix a carb with a protein because the protein slows down the digestion of the carb, which gives a quick energy boost but digests quickly. Same idea with an earlier poster's of bagel and cc, the fat in the cc slows the digestion of the bagel.

Anonymous wrote:DD's school lunch schedule is ridiculous ( it was at 1 pm in K, now is 11 am), what healthy snacks to pack? There is no fridge, and only 1 item/per day is allowed.

Just curious, but why is this schedule "ridiculous"? Assuming she goes to a K-5 school and each grade needs its own lunch slot, somebody has to be earlier and somebody has to be later. My kids' school has lunch times from 11-1:30, which seems pretty normal to me.

Anonymous wrote:Kids don't need snack time if they eat breakfast. Even if they eat at 7am, they don't need to eat again before lunch.

If lunch is at noon - maybe - but when lunch is at 1:30pm, I strongly disagree!

Kids don't need snack time if they eat breakfast. Even if they eat at 7am, they don't need to eat again before lunch.

Anonymous wrote:I would avoid messy things. In our school, we have a huge mouse issue b/c of the afternoon snacks in the classroom. We also do breakfast in the classroom too. Cheese sticks, fruit, yogurt tubes are good choices b/c they don't really have crumbs. Avoid anything crumbly.

And MCPS is not doing anything to take care of this issue? The mice are not going to go away simply because kids bring non-crumbly snacks...once they are in a building they will remain there.

I would avoid messy things. In our school, we have a huge mouse issue b/c of the afternoon snacks in the classroom. We also do breakfast in the classroom too. Cheese sticks, fruit, yogurt tubes are good choices b/c they don't really have crumbs. Avoid anything crumbly.

Dairy -
1) Cheesesticks
2) Yogurts
3) Milk (in carton - horizons)

Fruits and veggies
1) Apples (cored and halved)
2) Grapes (sliced)
3) Banana
4) Celery sticks (with peanut butter)
5) Carrots (with ranch dressing)

Trail mix (homemade - let kids assemble) -
1) Cheerios-raisins-cashews
2) Chex-goldfish-craisins-peanuts

Sandwiches -
1) Bagle - cream cheese
2) Bread - peanut butter - banana
3) Croissant - cream cheese - lunch meat

Others -
1) Small boxes of raisins
2) individual sized goldfish crackers
3) peanut - granola bars
4) Juice boxes
5) Apple sauce cups

I usually give a combination of things and I pack the lunch box with little ice-packs to keep it cool. You can also freeze sandwiches the night before and it will thaw out before snack time.

Unfortunately, I am not very talented in putting together a more creative menu for snacks and this has been my go-to list for some time.

Doesn't sound like he needs much with an early lunch..I would just do fruit or veggies

I usually pack an apple (or other whole fruit) or some graham crackers in a separate snack bag ... and if that doesn't quite do it, I tell DS to to eat the cheese stick from or yogurt from his lunch box.

FWIW ... my kid's lunch time is 1:30pm. I'd be so hungry if I had to wait until 1:30 to eat, so I try to make his snack as filling as possible.

Fruit or a cheese stick or a chobani yogurt tube. I pack the snack in my kids' lunchboxes so it stays cool with the ice pack. If they didn't have access to their lunchboxes, I'd put the snack in a little tupperware with a mini ice pack. I freeze the yogurt and it is nicely soft and cool at snack time.

We send fruit, granola bars and apple sauce squeezers.

What time is snack?

I do a whole wheat mini bagel with cream cheese for my first grader. His snack time is 10am. I'm fine with leaving cream cheese out that long, although I know others aren't. But you could use peanut butter or sunbutter. He also likes wheat chex mix.

DD's school lunch schedule is ridiculous ( it was at 1 pm in K, now is 11 am), what healthy snacks to pack? There is no fridge, and only 1 item/per day is allowed.