Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:48     Subject: Re:Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
Anonymous wrote:Ahhhh I remember that age. I used to pack a very healthy lunch for my kid (protein, rice, veg, no sugar). Then I got an email from the teacher telling me not to pack Brussels sprouts anymore because my son and some other boys were throwing them at each other's heads because they looked like little balls.

I generally think that unless you're paying for the food that someone else is eating, you have no business commenting on it.


There's a wide range of foods between cold brussels sprouts and oreos for snack. School lunch was the same in the 80s and 90s as it is now - nor did we have coolers or microwaves back then to use. But our parents sent us ants on a log, or apples cut up (yes they got a little brown - my mom put lemon on but that tasted weird too), orange slices, pretzel sticks, goldfish, maybe a homemade baked good on a good day. It is crazy when I join my kids at lunch. So many of the kids eat exclusively prepackaged junk - E.g. Capri Sun, Twix Yogurt, Cheetos, and Chips A Hoy -as the whole lunch. Then a few kids have twee bento boxes (hey, good for those moms). The immigrant kids have delicious looking real food for lunch. Then you still have the dwindling PBJ/cheese stick/apple/one cookie crowd.

I do see on here frequent complaints about no nuts. We have lived in multiple states and never had a nut ban in our kids' schools, but we do not live in the DMV. That would be definitely be tough.
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:44     Subject: Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
Kids not eating their snack because it’s “too healthy” is better than eating junk. They will survive.
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:43     Subject: Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
Anonymous wrote:OP here. I make many suggestions about snack both at the beginning of the year and throughout the year. Many parents oblige. These are third graders who can handle yogurt or whatever.

And it’s not even like a single cookie or handful of chocolate chips with an otherwise healthy snack. Kids will bring an entire sleeve of like 6-8 Oreos as their only snack. I just have a hard time believing an adult is standing there in the kitchen watching them do this.


What does the majority of class bring? Is it majority healthy snacks or majority junk?
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:40     Subject: Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Parents know…how do you think they’re getting the snacks?


+1 I chaperoned a field trip and one of the other parent chaperone's kid's lunch was INSANE. It was nothing but little bags of sugar, not even premade ultraprocessed quick grab stuff like Doritos. It was like the mom was meal prepping for her kid but instead of fruits or vegetables or some kind of protein there was a ziploc full of marshmallows (seriously, this is a real example), another ziploc full of funyuns, another ziploc full of cookies, another ziploc full of yogurt-covered pretzels.

I send my kid with food on the healthier side but recently learned that one of the other kids in her class started bringing 2 fruit rollups every day instead of one because she was distraught that her poor disenfranchised friend never got candy in her lunchbox. Every day is a tidal wave of junk food and all I can do is provide a raft with an apple on it.


So much this. It is a constant battle. And I'm always caught between wanting to provide the healthiest possible meal and also send food they will eat. When they are surrounded by junk food all day every day, it's so hard to get them to eat anything else. I'm happy if the lunchbox comes home and the applesauce and cheese are consumed. Even if it means the carrots, turkey sandwich, and milk went untouched. And yes I know they are getting chips and cookies and crackers from peers AND from teachers (who love giving this stuff for "good behavior" ugh).

Lecturing parents about sending in health food is absurd in a school environment that is just awash in Doritos (a food I have never bought for myself or my kids ever, in my life). If I send my kid some animal crackers one day as a snack simply because I know he'll eat it, leave me alone. I'm fighting an uphill battle, and losing. You don't have to rub it in.
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:39     Subject: Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
Same thing at my school. Our school has fresh fruit a few days each week but most of it goes uneaten by the kids. Teachers end up taking it home. The kids bring snacks and then refuse to get a free school lunch because they are full of snacks. I can’t believe that some walk in with glass jars of Starbucks too in addition to Dunkin Donuts. They’re either wired or asleep. Not too much in between these days.
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:38     Subject: Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If you are not watching out for this you should be.

On a daily basis I have kids bringing for snack (not dessert):

Packaged muffins, cookies, brownies, Doritos, cheetos. And the quantities they are bringing are astounding too.

This is terrible brain food. It makes them sleepy, unfocused and it’s terrible for their health too!


All this and no recos on snacks to pack?


You made it to adulthood without knowing what a healthy snack is? The problem is worse than I thought!
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:37     Subject: Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
OP here. I make many suggestions about snack both at the beginning of the year and throughout the year. Many parents oblige. These are third graders who can handle yogurt or whatever.

And it’s not even like a single cookie or handful of chocolate chips with an otherwise healthy snack. Kids will bring an entire sleeve of like 6-8 Oreos as their only snack. I just have a hard time believing an adult is standing there in the kitchen watching them do this.
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:34     Subject: Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How do you propose that parents force their kids to eat healthier food while at school?

Parents can pack healthy snacks (I did for years) but if the kids don't eat them (which also happened for years), you are left with hungry kids. So parents pack food that they know their kids will eat, so the kids eat.





Don’t buy garbage and they can’t eat garbage. This is not rocket science.

There is a direct correlation between the students that are focused and engaged and the students bringing healthy snacks. Yes I am a teacher (OP.)


What do you consider healthy? What are you seeing kids bring in that is so much better?

I agree that the ones listed are not healthy, but processed crackers are not that healthy either, and that's what seemed to be encouraged in my kids' classes. Fresh foods were not encouraged because of the mess.


Veggies, fruits, plain yogurt or applesauce, good cheese, plain pretzels or popcorn, low sugar granola.

I have kids literally brining packages of Oreos and chips ahoy for their “snack.”


Why don't you tell parents that's what they should send. Not in an anonymous message here but in an actual communication to parents of the children in your class.

Because here's what happens: parents are instructed to send snacks. Some parents make an effort to send healthy snacks. Some parents send bags of chips ahoy. The parents who send the healthy snacks open up backpacks to find their healthy snack has not been consumed and their child complained "everyone else has chips ahoy." And the healthy snack parents have to decide whether to continue to send snacks their kids don't eat (while looking lovingly at their seat mate's chips ahoy) or to send a processed, pre-packaged snack that their kid will actually eat because it's what the other kids are eating. Both options suck.

All you have to do is tell parents what an acceptable snack is and what snacks will not be allowed. It's YOUR classroom. But if there are no rules then some parents will of course send junk, and once there is junk in the system, it's all most kids are going to want to eat.

Parents don't control your classroom. You do. You can solve this problem yourself. This thread won't do it though. My kid gets healthy snacks for school.


Why are you under the impression that a teacher can dictate what the kids eat? It's lunacy. OF COURSE it's not HER classroom and of course she can't dictate what kid of food the kids bring (short of allergies and safety issues).
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:34     Subject: Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
Anonymous wrote:If you are not watching out for this you should be.

On a daily basis I have kids bringing for snack (not dessert):

Packaged muffins, cookies, brownies, Doritos, cheetos. And the quantities they are bringing are astounding too.

This is terrible brain food. It makes them sleepy, unfocused and it’s terrible for their health too!


All this and no recos on snacks to pack?
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:33     Subject: Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How do you propose that parents force their kids to eat healthier food while at school?

Parents can pack healthy snacks (I did for years) but if the kids don't eat them (which also happened for years), you are left with hungry kids. So parents pack food that they know their kids will eat, so the kids eat.





Don’t buy garbage and they can’t eat garbage. This is not rocket science.

There is a direct correlation between the students that are focused and engaged and the students bringing healthy snacks. Yes I am a teacher (OP.)


What do you consider healthy? What are you seeing kids bring in that is so much better?

I agree that the ones listed are not healthy, but processed crackers are not that healthy either, and that's what seemed to be encouraged in my kids' classes. Fresh foods were not encouraged because of the mess.


Veggies, fruits, plain yogurt or applesauce, good cheese, plain pretzels or popcorn, low sugar granola.

I have kids literally brining packages of Oreos and chips ahoy for their “snack.”


In kinder, I sent my oldest in with veggies and hummus, and was told that it was too drippy. Yogurt and applesauce were not allowed, and we were also told no fruits because the juice gets on their desk.

You may have better luck if you give examples of what is allowed in your classroom at the start of the year. The kid bringing in oreos may still bring in oreos, but the kid bringing in muffins might swap them out for something on your list.
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:32     Subject: Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How do you propose that parents force their kids to eat healthier food while at school?

Parents can pack healthy snacks (I did for years) but if the kids don't eat them (which also happened for years), you are left with hungry kids. So parents pack food that they know their kids will eat, so the kids eat.





Don’t buy garbage and they can’t eat garbage. This is not rocket science.

There is a direct correlation between the students that are focused and engaged and the students bringing healthy snacks. Yes I am a teacher (OP.)


What do you consider healthy? What are you seeing kids bring in that is so much better?

I agree that the ones listed are not healthy, but processed crackers are not that healthy either, and that's what seemed to be encouraged in my kids' classes. Fresh foods were not encouraged because of the mess.


Veggies, fruits, plain yogurt or applesauce, good cheese, plain pretzels or popcorn, low sugar granola.

I have kids literally brining packages of Oreos and chips ahoy for their “snack.”


Why don't you tell parents that's what they should send. Not in an anonymous message here but in an actual communication to parents of the children in your class.

Because here's what happens: parents are instructed to send snacks. Some parents make an effort to send healthy snacks. Some parents send bags of chips ahoy. The parents who send the healthy snacks open up backpacks to find their healthy snack has not been consumed and their child complained "everyone else has chips ahoy." And the healthy snack parents have to decide whether to continue to send snacks their kids don't eat (while looking lovingly at their seat mate's chips ahoy) or to send a processed, pre-packaged snack that their kid will actually eat because it's what the other kids are eating. Both options suck.

All you have to do is tell parents what an acceptable snack is and what snacks will not be allowed. It's YOUR classroom. But if there are no rules then some parents will of course send junk, and once there is junk in the system, it's all most kids are going to want to eat.

Parents don't control your classroom. You do. You can solve this problem yourself. This thread won't do it though. My kid gets healthy snacks for school.
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:32     Subject: Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
My kid unwraps a fruit roll up and eats in right in front you, OP. Worry about your own kids, k?
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:28     Subject: Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How do you propose that parents force their kids to eat healthier food while at school?

Parents can pack healthy snacks (I did for years) but if the kids don't eat them (which also happened for years), you are left with hungry kids. So parents pack food that they know their kids will eat, so the kids eat.





Don’t buy garbage and they can’t eat garbage. This is not rocket science.

There is a direct correlation between the students that are focused and engaged and the students bringing healthy snacks. Yes I am a teacher (OP.)


What do you consider healthy? What are you seeing kids bring in that is so much better?

I agree that the ones listed are not healthy, but processed crackers are not that healthy either, and that's what seemed to be encouraged in my kids' classes. Fresh foods were not encouraged because of the mess.


Veggies, fruits, plain yogurt or applesauce, good cheese, plain pretzels or popcorn, low sugar granola.

I have kids literally brining packages of Oreos and chips ahoy for their “snack.”


Are you their teacher?

I honestly rolled my eyes at teachers like you when my son was in ES. It's not your job to police what they eat, but if you feel THIS strongly about it, talk to their parents. We have nothing to do with those kids.


You’re right. No point in feeding them well when you can just put them on GLP1s when they are 12.


If that's what you got out of what I wrote, there is no hope in having an intellectual discussion with you.
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:27     Subject: Re:Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
Ahhhh I remember that age. I used to pack a very healthy lunch for my kid (protein, rice, veg, no sugar). Then I got an email from the teacher telling me not to pack Brussels sprouts anymore because my son and some other boys were throwing them at each other's heads because they looked like little balls.

I generally think that unless you're paying for the food that someone else is eating, you have no business commenting on it.
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2026 12:26     Subject: Parents - your kids are bringing garbage snacks to school
Anonymous wrote:Parents know…how do you think they’re getting the snacks?


+1 I chaperoned a field trip and one of the other parent chaperone's kid's lunch was INSANE. It was nothing but little bags of sugar, not even premade ultraprocessed quick grab stuff like Doritos. It was like the mom was meal prepping for her kid but instead of fruits or vegetables or some kind of protein there was a ziploc full of marshmallows (seriously, this is a real example), another ziploc full of funyuns, another ziploc full of cookies, another ziploc full of yogurt-covered pretzels.

I send my kid with food on the healthier side but recently learned that one of the other kids in her class started bringing 2 fruit rollups every day instead of one because she was distraught that her poor disenfranchised friend never got candy in her lunchbox. Every day is a tidal wave of junk food and all I can do is provide a raft with an apple on it.