Anonymous wrote:What exactly does family style mean? Aren't the meals individually wrapped?

no -- its a hot meal, cooked in big cafeteria trays. Family style means they bring enough food into the classroom to serve the whole class, and the teacher serves it out onto each kid's plate (as you would at a family dinner table, where there's a serving dish of green beans or whatever, portioned out onto each person's plate).

My daughter will be in 3rd this fall, but I've never packed her lunch except for field trips or some activity that interfered with lunch. She is less picky & gets more variety with school food than she would get from something I packed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher in a similar school asked everyone to eat the school lunch.

Sorry but I'm not compromising my kid's health to make the teacher's life easier.

You sound fun!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher in a similar school asked everyone to eat the school lunch.

Sorry but I'm not compromising my kid's health to make the teacher's life easier.

what?? you should relax a little or investigate whether you suffer from orthorexia.

Oh come on. Avoiding Chartwells does not indicate an obsession. Good for her for feeding her kid well. He'll probably be thanking her 90 years from now.

school lunches "compromising my kid's health" is totally over dramatic. not to mention the ugly, unsympathetic dig at the teacher. Leaving aside the whole fraud thing, the Chartwells lunches were perfectly fine and in fact included a pretty good diversity of veggies and fruit. Not sure why the average packed lunch (sunbutter on whole wheat with sliced apples or whatever) is so superior. Maybe you're sending your kid to school with unseasoned tofu chunks and raw kale?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher in a similar school asked everyone to eat the school lunch.

Sorry but I'm not compromising my kid's health to make the teacher's life easier.

what?? you should relax a little or investigate whether you suffer from orthorexia.

Oh come on. Avoiding Chartwells does not indicate an obsession. Good for her for feeding her kid well. He'll probably be thanking her 90 years from now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher in a similar school asked everyone to eat the school lunch.

Sorry but I'm not compromising my kid's health to make the teacher's life easier.

what?? you should relax a little or investigate whether you suffer from orthorexia.

Not sure why everyone thinks lunches from home are so much healthier. The school lunches I saw were pretty healthy and varied.

The culture is going to totally depend on the school. If the teacher is encouraging all kids to eat school lunch, then most kids probably will. We had the same situation in pk3 but I still packed my kid's lunch on most days. There were 2 or 3 other packers. They say with their lunch boxes while the other kids ate family style, which really meant the teacher was making a plate for them anyhow. You are overthinking this. Whatever you choose will be fine socially w the other kids. Probably healthier to pack. Depending on the teacher she may be passive aggressive about your choice to pack and this may result in her being less helpful with opening containers. I like the easy lunchbox containers bc there is one lid to take off revealing food in 3 compartments.

Initially we only packed when there is something on the menu our kids didn't like, but on too many occasions Chartwells didn't stick with what was posted on the menu; we pack their lunches everyday.

Yes. Our 3 ES kids generally didn't like the school lunch (PK3; 1; 3) almost always asked for "home lunch" instead.

What exactly does family style mean? Aren't the meals individually wrapped?

I packed some days and not others - it averaged out to bringing a packed lunch about 2/3 of the time. I don't know if that's an option in this case.

Pack your child's lunch and let her help. You can have conversations about healthy food while you do it. Honestly, putting soup in a thermos doesn't take very long, and she'll remember what you're teaching her.

I personally hated the free breakfasts at my child's pre-school. I know it's supposed to de-stigmatize them to give them to everyone, but every single time I saw them I just groaned inside.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I substitute teach in DCPS, and I felt like the school lunches were usually fine. I would start by having your child eat the school lunch and see how it goes. I see so many kids throwing out half of their home lunches.

I packed my PK4 child's lunch. Half of it would routinely return home in her lunch box, but in her class, leftovers brought in from home were not thrown away. I may or may not have recycled leftover apple slices into the next day's lunch (don't judge). Uneaten leftovers from school lunch, meanwhile, are routinely thrown away.

^^This was largely our experience as well - if the kid didn't eat it, it came home so I knew how much was consumed. We were one of two families that packed lunch. Kid never complained about having something different. Like a different PP, I'm not willing to compromise my child's health and so we will continue to send lunch.

Was the lunch served family style?

Breakfast was, but not lunch. (He did not eat breakfast with the group either - wasn't a problem for the teacher.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I substitute teach in DCPS, and I felt like the school lunches were usually fine. I would start by having your child eat the school lunch and see how it goes. I see so many kids throwing out half of their home lunches.

I packed my PK4 child's lunch. Half of it would routinely return home in her lunch box, but in her class, leftovers brought in from home were not thrown away. I may or may not have recycled leftover apple slices into the next day's lunch (don't judge). Uneaten leftovers from school lunch, meanwhile, are routinely thrown away.

^^This was largely our experience as well - if the kid didn't eat it, it came home so I knew how much was consumed. We were one of two families that packed lunch. Kid never complained about having something different. Like a different PP, I'm not willing to compromise my child's health and so we will continue to send lunch.

Was the lunch served family style?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I substitute teach in DCPS, and I felt like the school lunches were usually fine. I would start by having your child eat the school lunch and see how it goes. I see so many kids throwing out half of their home lunches.

I packed my PK4 child's lunch. Half of it would routinely return home in her lunch box, but in her class, leftovers brought in from home were not thrown away. I may or may not have recycled leftover apple slices into the next day's lunch (don't judge). Uneaten leftovers from school lunch, meanwhile, are routinely thrown away.

^^This was largely our experience as well - if the kid didn't eat it, it came home so I knew how much was consumed. We were one of two families that packed lunch. Kid never complained about having something different. Like a different PP, I'm not willing to compromise my child's health and so we will continue to send lunch.