At our school, our class has lunch at 12:28. We leave the classroom at 12:25 so we have a few minutes for the kids to wash their hands/use the bathroom. They have 30 mins to eat. If the parents choose to not send in a lunch, the kids will be waiting in line for a while. But that's their choice. I am also appalled at the waste of food too but I think 30 mins is enough time to eat if you don't spend 10 mins of it waiting in line. The cafeteria food is mostly junk BTW. I've had the last lunch of the day at 1:08 and once I had the earliest at 11:18 or something like that.

This is such an interesting thread. My daughter attended our public school in Loudoun for the first time this August. As with most schools, they desperately need volunteers from the git go starting with sign-up on Parents' Open House the Thursday before the first day of school. I volunteered for one of the days (Thursday) to be on lunch duty so the teacher could go an eat. I was also interested in seeing the process of how lunchtime goes day to day. My daughter's lunch time was 10:40 so i showed up in front of the cafeteria doors about 5 minutes earlier. Well, it was an experience. How things have changed... Wow... So first off, when you are told your child has 25 minutes for lunch, that includes the entier process of walking down to the bathrooms in front of the cafeteria so all the kids can go in use the bathroom, wash their hands, etc. My daughter's class has 26 kids. Then they go into the cafeteria to sit down. Some kids pack and some buy. It's very unfortunate for the ones that buy because they litterally have maybe 10 minutes to eat.....I mean swallow their food. Just to reiterate what a PP wrote, I was disgusted by how much good uneaten food was going into the big trash can. So if you wonder why your little one comes home cranky or really hungry, then sign up for lunch duty at the school and experience it for yourself. You won't ahve to be there for long becasue the whole lunch process does not last long anyways.

I don't know what can be done about this and I have read some of the PPs which state that this is the way it is, but does tha tmake it right? Is this problem so difficult to solve that we are just going to get used to this where kids are not learning to socialize while eating, much less chew???

Anonymous wrote:What school is this? All fairfax ele
Entary schools? Falls church city too?
Ridiculous !

We're in Falls Church City and my K student has lunch at 11:20 - I thought that was early, I had no idea! Not sure what time lunches start, would be curious to know...

I let my students have a small snack around 10:00. Lunch is at 12:35. School starts at 8:20.

RE: the crazy snack times some PPs have posted (i.e. lunch at 12:30, snack at 1:20 p.m. or so). Isn't this something that could easily be changed with the homeroom teacher? I am new to public schools, but I cannot believe that a teacher wouldn't try to work with parents to ensure a more productive snack time for their children. I would think the teachers could find 5-10 minutes in some other area to have snack!

I think you should contact the local media, say "7 on your Side" or WTOP news. They would LOVE a story about this issue, as I am certain it happens at other area schools. Sometimes going to the media is the only way to get something changed. OF course, you should first contact the Principal to see if he/she has plans to change this totally unacceptable lunch time. If the Principal seems not to respond in a sincere way to fix the problem, call one of the news rooms!

Re snacks, this year my kids have snack at 10:00 and then lunch at 11:15. It was better last year with lunch at 10:20 but snack at 1:30!

Those advocating for snacks... We had a sad laugh over dd's lunch sched. Lunch from 1235 to 1255. Snack at 1:20.

I wonder if full day kindergarten added has anything to do with the change in lunch schedules. It probably didn't change by much, but I can see the schools needing to change the times by 15 mintutes or so to accommodate an additional grade level.

I think it is ridiculous. Often, at the end of the school day when I pick up my daughter, she is starving and has hunger pains. I suspect she is not hungry that early in the day, after eating breakfast first thing in the morning.

However, I have tried talking to the teacher, etc. but the school does not do anything about it. I am not sure what I can do about it....

Anonymous wrote:I don't see this happening at our 3 grade per class elementary. Is this just a problem at the larger schools like the AAP centers? At the private schools they sometimes eat in the gym.

Wrong, my child has a 10:50 lunch. There are only 2 classes per grade, not an AAP center.

Anonymous wrote:I don't see this happening at our 3 grade per class elementary. Is this just a problem at the larger schools like the AAP centers? At the private schools they sometimes eat in the gym.

I'm the OP. School starts at 8:10, lunch at 10:15.

We are not an AAP center. We do have 4-5 classes of each grade (occassionally it is just 3 classrooms of a grade). We are not over capacity... I would hate to see what happens if were to reach capacity or exceed it. It shouldn't be acceptable for a 6 yr. old to go to lunch at 10:15 in the morning. There's no changing it, so we will just have to adapt.

Gold standard? Not so much.

We have a 9:10 start elementary (probably the same one). New admin. still trying to work schedule out I think. There are no easy answers. I do not want parent supervision only during lunch. Too many parent's look the other way when kids misbehave. I think older students would get used to eating early faster. Younger would do better with a morning snack and late lunch. The younger ones are very messy (no fault of their own) so the older kids could eat at clean tables if they have early lunch.

14:06 Are you preparing to be lunchroom monitor then every week? I'm sure the school could work something out if you volunteered to solve the problem. Even if there was more space in the cafeteria, how long would the lunch line be if more kids ate at the same time?

I don't see this happening at our 3 grade per class elementary. Is this just a problem at the larger schools like the AAP centers? At the private schools they sometimes eat in the gym.