https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sun, 24 May 2026 19:14:13 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2771174 Fri, 01 Sep 2017 11:50:46 +0000 looch 2771174@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@808love: Additionally, in our school, if they don't purchase the full lunch, including the components they won't eat, they get charged the higher, a la carte price, which I think is just ridiculous. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2771153 Fri, 01 Sep 2017 11:06:02 +0000 808love 2771153@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Kindergarteners are notorious for wasting almost entire school lunch so I could see how choice could help reduce the waste. That's why we (DH) usually packs lunch although it is probably the same cost as buying. I just can't stand the waste and LO would probably eat just a fraction of it. We planned for mainly school lunches but in the end she preferred home over school most of the time. </p> <p>In my class we usually have 2-4 students with home lunches per day. This year there are 10!!!<br /> DD is actually thrilled when she gets to eat school lunch bc it is so rare it is a treat for her. I check her account quarterly because it is an online system in which we can set low balance alerts. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2771151 Fri, 01 Sep 2017 11:01:47 +0000 BSB 2771151@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My kids are too young for this but this is so weird to me. How much things have changed from when I was in school. I remember getting in line for lunch and going down the line and getting my lunch plate. The only choice I got to make was what I wanted to drink (juice, milk or chocolate milk). </p> <p>Do kindergartners get that much control now? Wow! I think I have to visit a local elementary school to see how the cafeteria is setup. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2771149 Fri, 01 Sep 2017 10:52:57 +0000 looch 2771149@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrsbells: So the other day I was at the school while the principal was giving a talk to the K parents and he was talking about the lunch process and that the woman in charge enters in the pin for the k kids so that they don't go nuts and overspend. I wonder if it's the same at your school?</p> <p>Additionally, I thought this was interesting as I never thought of it, sometimes kids spill their food on the floor and they have to buy a second lunch, which means extra charges that parents didn't account for. </p> <p>Seems like there's got to be some guardrails, you know? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2771145 Fri, 01 Sep 2017 10:35:18 +0000 Mrsbells 2771145@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Thanks everyone. Things are going great and we are falling into a good routine. Today is pizza friday so i only had to pack snacks! DD has so far used her card very minimally. I was silly to be worried at all</p> <p>@dazzyshahu: thanks for your comment. Not to generalize but i do have a lot of friends from india or with indian heritage so i definitely understand your perspective. Things are very different here in the US both the pace of our lifestyle and culture so ways of showing love arent always going to be the same. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769967 Sat, 26 Aug 2017 10:05:18 +0000 808love 2769967@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <br /><p><i>This comment has been deleted by the original poster.</i></p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769955 Sat, 26 Aug 2017 07:02:29 +0000 Shree1990 2769955@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I guess I would ask the teacher or whoever takes care of the children to help the children use their cards sensibly. Meaning encourage them to understand that they can charge only once a day. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769841 Fri, 25 Aug 2017 12:00:17 +0000 MamaG 2769841@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@dazzyshahu: and I like to give my kid the choice of lunch. Her food doesn't have to be prepared by me for her to know she's loved. I love her so much that I give her money to buy food she likes that's prepared by people that make a living cooking for kids. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769733 Fri, 25 Aug 2017 06:32:38 +0000 ShootingStar 2769733@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@dazzyshahu: Um...🤷🏻‍♀️😂 </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769714 Thu, 24 Aug 2017 23:38:08 +0000 dazzyshahu 2769714@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Hi mothers!</p> <p>I stay in India and I personally make lunch for my son daily. I regularly feed my son from my hand and made him habbitual of finishing his food. So there is no interferance of teahers. he himselfs complete his lunch daily made by me. or may be he loves to eat food cooked by me.</p> <p>I guess every mother shoul cook herself for theif kids so that kinds can have the love of their mom in terms of food. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769705 Thu, 24 Aug 2017 21:27:01 +0000 MamaCate 2769705@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrsbells: good luck! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769499 Thu, 24 Aug 2017 01:56:37 +0000 808love 2769499@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>LO gets school lunch about 3 times a month. She would much rather get home lunch except on chicken patty and pizza days. Helping pack didn't go well so I will try again in another six months. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769494 Wed, 23 Aug 2017 22:25:47 +0000 Mrsbells 2769494@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrswin: @MamaCate: thanks. Yes great suggestion. I have been thinking the same thing. My parents got us involved in packing our lunches and i actually enjoyed my lunch more knowing i had helped.<br /> DD has pizza on Fridays too so she is planning on doing school lunches on Fridays :happy: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769493 Wed, 23 Aug 2017 22:15:24 +0000 MamaCate 2769493@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrsbells: yay! Just wanted to second having LO1 help with lunch. We have a younger LO as well and LO1 and I will do her lunch after the younger one is in bed. At this point she mostly gives input about what to pack and helps a little bit I am hoping to help her grow into more responsibility over time.</p> <p>It is funny because I was planning on packing lunch and she decided she wants to try to school lunch. We have had mixed success so far (mac and cheese today--not a fan) but Friday pizza day is a hit. So far it has been fine to let her lead the way. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769423 Wed, 23 Aug 2017 14:47:12 +0000 mrswin 2769423@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrsbells: LOL it's always the way! Could you get your DD to help pack her lunch, I think there was a blog post about this not to long ago, let me see if I can find it </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769400 Wed, 23 Aug 2017 13:54:25 +0000 Mrsbells 2769400@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Thanks everyone she did great on her first day and only picked one entree and everything that goes with it. She actually told me she prefers a packed lunch ugh! All her friends bring a packed lunch so she wants one too. I am both flattered and bummed. I like packing her a healthy lunch but now that DS is turning a year too it takes a while packing it for both of them especially since his food has to be cut into little pieces. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769195 Tue, 22 Aug 2017 13:54:34 +0000 2littlepumpkins 2769195@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The K I worked at the kids actually ate in the K yard and we're walked to get their lunch, so there's no way they could have kept going up. It turns out my daughters school is like this too! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769135 Tue, 22 Aug 2017 10:43:20 +0000 cascademom 2769135@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@yoursilverlining: Our school has lunch helpers of older kids who help with opening up packages and clean up. We'll see how all of this goes on his first day of school tomorrow. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769132 Tue, 22 Aug 2017 10:41:08 +0000 mediagirl 2769132@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@yoursilverlining: from what I've heard, they catch on fast. Eat or go hungry. So the first week should be super fun... </p> <p>I'm not sure how the whole student id thing is going to work for K kids and lunch. We have our parent teacher conference next Friday so I'm hoping to ask that then. Their ID's are 10 digits long. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769130 Tue, 22 Aug 2017 10:34:58 +0000 yoursilverlining 2769130@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@cascademom: This is our plan too - - that the card and $$ will mainly just be used for buying milk and lunch if she wants it. I will admit I'm nervous about how LO will have time to get out her lunch from home (or buy), buy her milk and eat in 20 minutes when she is the worlds.slowest.eater.ever! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769125 Tue, 22 Aug 2017 10:21:33 +0000 cascademom 2769125@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@yoursilverlining: Ours is 20 minutes too. I put money in DS #1's account mainly for milk and if he wants hot lunch. I also setup a recurring payment to make it easier too. Tonight, we'll be talking to him about getting milk at school compared to daycare. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769122 Tue, 22 Aug 2017 09:41:49 +0000 Mrsbells 2769122@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Thanks everyone, I will see how the first week goes! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769120 Tue, 22 Aug 2017 09:36:50 +0000 yoursilverlining 2769120@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>How long is your LO’s lunch? Here they only get 20 minutes total for lunch so I’m not too worried about LO going up multiple times to pick items because by necessity she won’t really have the time to do it. I think a conversation ahead of time about what can/should be purchased coupled with some real time follow-up in the first few weeks of school might solve a lot of potential issues. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769117 Tue, 22 Aug 2017 09:23:10 +0000 T.H.O.U. 2769117@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrsbells: Our teachers dont actually stay with them for lunch so the teacher wasn't able to help much. If they were purchasing a "lunch" the cafeteria workers would make sure they had a protein, veggie, fruit and milk (or whatever the combo was). But they could do alacart. We didn't really ever have an issue with her purchasing a bunch of random things. Sometimes she would grab an extra milk. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769112 Tue, 22 Aug 2017 08:38:39 +0000 808love 2769112@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DDs lunch account bar code is on the back of her name tag. We get alerts when it has reached a low balance.They can't pick extras but if it were me I would just limit her myself and monitor. Only one extra per day or NO extra. Then estimate the cost per quarter and deposit quarterly. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769057 Mon, 21 Aug 2017 19:36:58 +0000 MamaG 2769057@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We had a similar experience. Only a meal no extras. I think the schools are aware of ages where it's appropriate to handle the responsibility. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769040 Mon, 21 Aug 2017 17:29:24 +0000 Mrsbells 2769040@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Maysprout: Oh ok thats interesting. I will speak to to her teacher about that then. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769035 Mon, 21 Aug 2017 16:27:05 +0000 Maysprout 2769035@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Last year each K teacher handled it a lil diff so it's prob worth asking since they handle the lil ones differently. Our teacher didn't make them memorize their account #, and they could only get the lunch - no extras, except for Fridays. We could sign on to our account and see what she got. Also they sent email and text when her account was running low. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/managing-school-lunch-accounts#post-2769030 Mon, 21 Aug 2017 15:59:41 +0000 Mrsbells 2769030@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DD starts kindergarten this week! I am so excited!! we have set up an account for her to be able to buy school lunches. but I feel like its a bit complicated for a kid. she can basically keep going back and picking things and<br /> "charging her card" I heard a mom complaining about that. I wish it was a bit more controlled so that they can only get one complete meal per sitting instead of allowing them to buy individual things in addition. I gutess a 5 year old is kind of young to fully understand their spending?!<br /> How are you guys managing this? </p>