<p>With school starting up again on Monday I am beginning to think about the dreaded packed lunch. My youngest is off to a new school. The last 4 yrs have been at a small school where you pre-purchase a good hot lunch. She is now going to be at a school of over 2000 kids. She will be a soph. Soph are not allowed to leave campus for lunch. My older kids did not attend this school so I am not familar with the lunch options at this school. With my older kids no one ate on campus unless you were eligible for a free lunch. We lived close enough that they often came home to eat. Or often did not eat at all.
I know that at this age many kids do not like to be seen with a lunch from home. Or at least not with the tupperware type of container. Also I know many females end up not eating anything at all. My D will have PE and English after lunch so she will need to have some fuel in her. Also she gets EXTREMELY cranky if she isn’t fed. But getting her to eat might be an issue. I am looking for easy and somewhat small items to send in her backpack. She does not have a locker so will have to carry the lunch all day.</p>
<p>I really hate brown bag lunches without refrigeration. Honestly, I like packing things that contain nuts, but this is often not allowed. I know plenty of kids who brought in peanut butter sandwiches, peanut butter on crackers, nuts, trail mix etc., anyway. The school cannot seem to monitor this, and there were no emergencies since it was forbidden. Frankly, if they want to accommodate those with severe nut allergies they should provide refrigeration for alternative foods (ie: dairy products, meats). In addition to nut products, fruit, pretzels, carrots, cheese if doesn’t spoil, yogurt with an ice pack (never really worked well for our kids), soup in a thermos. Also, I know kids who had little “roll ups” of meat, lettuce, cheese in various combos. Still, my kids would not eat that after it sat out for over 3 hours.</p>
<p>Cheese and the hard salamis really don’t go bad. I like hearty soups in thermoses. My kids like granola bars, but from the health point of view they aren’t much better than eating cookies. Raw vegetable and dip, and things like hummus or baba ganoush could work.</p>
<p>DD did not mind taking a salad in a semi-disposable container, with dressing in a separate little one and topping in another (usually left overs from dinner). She generally brown bagged since it would pack tighter in the backpack. Had bottled water. Sometimes she took the insulated bag to hold the cold pac when she had something like shrimp to go on the salad. When she did not take a salad she generally took a roll up with lunch meat and cheese on a tortilla. Sometimes made a chicken ceasar wrap with the tortilla and sent the dressing in a separate container. (DS’s on the other hand would just take a sandwich, chips and a coke just about every day in a brown bag)</p>
<p>A coke? Every day?!</p>
<p>Nobody at our h.s. is allowed to leave for lunch. There are security guards constantly patroling the student parking lot.</p>
<p>S1 always bought lunch in the cafeteria.
S2 insisted on brown bagging fresh/soph years then switched to buying the sch. lunch jr/sr years.</p>
<p>In the brown bag days he took a variety of things depending on what was in our kitchen pantry that day… bagels, slices of pepperoni (does not go bad), pretzels,Nutri-Grain bars, applesauce in the little ind. containers, Little Debbie cakes(bad I know but he was a football player who ran it off every day), reduced fat cheez-its, peanut butter sandwiches or crackers, leftover pizza, bottle of water.</p>
<p>He never had a locker either so wanted to be able to throw everything in the trash (except water bottle) when lunch was over. </p>
<p>I teach at a preschool where the kids bring their lunch in a lunchbox everyday.
They all have ice packs for cold stuff. They bring a crazy assortment. Here’s a few…
babybel cheese, hardboiled eggs, strawberries/blueberries/bananas, yogurt, string cheese, the drinkable yogurt, bagel w/ cream cheese, turkey sandwiches, cold mac and cheese, cold pizza, cold grilled cheese,cold steamed broccoli, bologna, cereal bars, chicken nuggets.</p>
<p>Mathmom…lots of kids (who have the $ to spend) buy ala carte Dominoes pizza ($3/slice), french fries and soft drinks on a daily basis at our h.s. Mine bought pizza occasionally but not often. I gave then enough for the cafeteria lunch ($2). If they wanted expensive pizza they had to finance it themselves</p>
<p>When we worked in the fields, I was always enjoyed cold fried chicken, thick sliced ham sandwiches with more mayo and mustard than meat, 2-iced canned pop (cream soda, rootbeer, or cherry coke), carrot or celery sticks, a big pickle or pickled hot peppers (we needed the salt), chips, and a candy bar (to be eaten at 9-10am.) We didn’t need fruit since we got to eat as much strawberries, raspberries, blackberries as we wanted.</p>
<p>It’s been years but I started packing lunches for son because the food line was so long. I used to freeze the drinks in foil type packages and use a lightweight thermal lunch bag. I’m a freak for Food refrigeration, but this was sufficient. Wraps in tortillas, sandwiches in rolls stayed together. Apple slices dipped in lemon, snack bags of chips worked. I hate packing lunches but I cried the last morning I packed Son’s hs lunch. Oh yea, son loved cold pizza.</p>
<p>Packmom-it was easier when they were younger. The lunchbox and ice pack made things so much easier. I know whatever we pack it will be in a brown bag. I have my doubts that any plastic container will make it home. She is also a picky eater. Not that I would want to eat a sandwich that had sat in a pack pack at room temperature for 5 hours.
I went to the grocery store today. So much that is not perishable is just a load of carbs. But it beats starving. I picked up several boxes of bars, Nutri grain, Special K and another granola bar that supposedly has added protein. Beef jerky,small pack of small containers of ranch dressing to dip carrots in. Parmesan Goldfish(favorite), tapioca pudding. Have tortillas and crackers that she can put peanut butter on. When I go to Trader Joe’s will buy some dry fruit and Powerbars.
I hate that half the time she will probably not eat anything. She gets migraine headaches so we have gotten into the habit of her having a good breakfast before school. I am hoping giving her a good fill up before school will help. I also will probably try to bring her something healthy to eat when I pick her up at 3 to take her to her after school activity.
Also I hate finding the mush of days worth of crackers and sandwiches at the bottom of the backpack of the lunches she didn’t eat.</p>
<p>mom60, my DD and DS both went to a high school where hardly anyone ate on campus. It was like you said, kids only ate there if they were on the free lunch program. They also werent’ about to take a thermos of hearty soup or anything else high in dork factor that had to be carried around all day. I resorted to a basket on the counter with granola bars, 100 calorie packs, etc. These could at least be stuck in the backpack and snacked on. They both got home by 2pm at the latest and ate then. Hopefully yours gets home on the early side too!</p>
<p>I’ve been packing lunches for nineteen years for kids! Our schools have closed campuses and kids never wanted to eat the school lunches because of long lines and selection. All of us are very much into re-using and re-cycling so we do use kids lunchbags and plastic containers everyday, including square plastic one for sandwiches. This year’s lunch bag from Costco came with a metal bottle, I’ll fill that with water the night before and stick it in the frig. </p>
<p>Older son ate a raisin bagel with cream cheese, a piece of fruit, chips or crackers and a granola bar. Daughter would eat a salad and chips or soup or cheese and crackers, piece of fruit, sometimes cookies. Youngest son is even more boring - PB & J, piece of fruit, chips and sometimes a cookie or baked good. Once in a while any of them would have cold pizza. All drank water from re-useable water bottle. Used to be individual juice boxes until I realized how wasteful that was. </p>
<p>I got some cute little square plastic containers that have a cold gel insert to keep everything good.</p>
<p>I used to freeze a pudding cup. By lunch time, it was thawed but ice cold and had functioned as an edible ice pack.</p>
<p>ebeeeee- Great description of our high schools. I wish she was home by 2 but she won’t get out till 2:50. She wishes she was done by 2. She requested a zero period but didn’t get it. Only so many daylight hours to spend at the barn once school starts. And her priority is definitely the barn.
When my oldest two were in high school everyone was able to leave campus. I think they started restricting it to juniors and seniors because of complaints from the neighbors. I think one of the local high schools still allow all students to leave but I heard it is because they are not equipped to handle the student load if all ate on campus. Plus that high school has many choices to eat at within walking distance. The high school my D will attend has nothing within walking distance so if you don’t know someone with a car you are pretty much stuck on campus.</p>
<p>kathiep-around here any sort of reusable lunch box or containers use stops at elementary school. As Ebeeee pointed out it is considered dorky. Plus not wanting to carry a lunch box in addition to an already full back pack.
I wonder if a difference is how lunch is eaten at different schools. At our middle schools and high schools kids do not eat at tables. They eat on ledges, on the lawn or just standing around. I don’t know if they even have any tables aside from inside the cafeteria and the only reason one would enter the cafeteria would be to pick up the free lunch. Other food is sold outside on the quad. It is difficult to eat out of a lunch box or eat a salad if you are standing up.</p>
<p>Cash for the lunch line. :)</p>
<p>Bullet you are lucky if that is an option. Around here it just “isn’t done.”
Mom60 and I are in roughly the same neck of the woods. The kids snack on ledges or sit on the grass. My kids only ate at school when they were permitted off campus as junior/seniors.<br>
Mom60, yup DD had the zero period. Made life a lot easier for getting out earlier, going to ballet or the barn.</p>
<p>kathiep, cracking up here at the thought of my kids being willing to carry a lunch box from Costco in hs. I wish it were that easy. Since when did it become more about image than the food?
Last year I started packing a lunch for DH in a similar lunch box. My kids thought it was hysterical. A. that he would take it. B. that I never made their lunches.
Of course, they forgot all the years I would make their lunches (up until about 7th grade).</p>
<p>I don’t think my kids were ever big on the cool factor, but they’ve always understood waste. My college son just took an old insulated lunch bag back to college with him (6 hour drive) filled with refrigerated goodies and a gel pack. No complaints now either! ;)</p>
<p>Freeze a Capri Sun or freeze a plastic bottle half filled with of water, then add cold water in the morning to fill rest of the way, doubles as beverage and cool pack.
Suggestions: Hummus with cut veggies or pita
Leftover grilled chicken strips and BBQ sauce to dip
Cold giant ziti and marinara sauce as dip
Cold cooked Asian dumplings fried the night before
Kebab-esque- cubed ham, turkey,cheese,melon, cantaloupe,grapes, cherry tomato</p>
<p>Batlio-I had thought about the pasta with marinara as a dip. She is my carb kid. She likes the pot stickers from trader joes but I don’t know how they will stand up to being in a baggie.
Kathiep-I don’t think it is even about wanting to be “cool”. The last thing any of my kids care about is being “Cool”. Lunch boxes just aren’t done here after elementary school. They will carry an insulated bag to the beach with lunch or even to work. I don’t know why it isn’t done for school. Ebeeee-when my husband brings leftovers for lunch he uses an old rubbermaid lunch box my D used in elementary school. Complete with D’s name in Sharpie across the top.</p>