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You have to pay for school lunches, unless you prove you need govermental assistance, then they give your reduced price meals. However, you're more than welcome to bring your own lunch. And there's no microwave.

We have to pay for school lunches. D can bring one, but there's no microwave or fridge, and it's just way easier to have him buy his lunch at school.

school lunches here are around $2 as well, but the cafeteria is a private entity and they are for profit...so the line is full of a-la-cart garbage that costs a fortune. The parents can put money on their account and then the kids can buy whatever they want. I used to see kids every day buy an ice cream, french fries, and two bags of chips for lunch. Then the parents wonder why they are going through their money so often.

We will be doing lunch from home, woth the occasional treat paid for with cash so that they see that they have to make choices within a reasonable limit.

Sorry for the long response....this is a pet peeve of mine.

At the public school, there is a set menu that you can buy on a weekly basis. I am not sure if you can purchase daily, but the idea is that you don't carry cash, but a lunch ticket. You can buy milk only separately.

For the lunch bringers, no microwave, no water, etc. You have to bring everything or you can buy a milk ticket.

@Mrs. Pen: Great tips there, thanks for the link! I like the 4 compartment tin container they displayed. I wonder who makes it. It would work for both kids and adults.

@locavore_mama: @Kimberlybee: yup! Here lunch bots http://www.lunchbots.com

@locavore_mama: The middle school I work in doesn't have cafeteria workers any more to save money. Instead, the school district contracted with local restaurants to do the food instead--there are 5 set restaurants who have the same day each week--

Monday-Japanese
Tuesday- Italian
wednesday- deli
Thursday- Korean
Friday- pizza (but other choices like salads and subs as well)

Parents have an online system where they choose their child's exact order each day of the week and pay. The restaurants deliver each order individually wrapped with the child's name on it and the teachers on lunch duty just lay them all out on the tables and the kids come by and pick them up.

Probably 95% of the kids order lunch through this system. The rest bring it. It's something more like $5-$6 a day.

@Kimberlybee: Yup that looks like a Lunch Bot. We have a 3 section one and it's great.
@Mamaof2: We have a YumBox! It is completely leakproof. But heavy.. and a little bulky. But I like it.

I work in a school where a substantial number of students receive free or reduced lunch. A good number of students bring their own lunches. There are no ways to refrigerate or heat up food for students.

@Anagram: I wish we had that. I hate when I forget my lunch because the school lunches are so gross. My mom's high school has a separate line in the teachers' dining room and their food is much better.

My mom always packed our lunches, except if the school lunch was serving something on the menu we really liked, she'd let us buy. (They sent out the menus a month at a time). So we'd circle on the menu the days we wanted to buy and she would know now to pack our lunch that day.

In our area, we have no questions asked free school lunch. So anyone who wants the school lunch gets it free, but you have to sign up for it. DH and I pack our lunches for work, so I imagine we'd just do the same for our child.

Did you know you can make a whole loaf's worth of PBJs at once and freeze them? They'll thaw by lunch time.

I love the idea of having kids pack their own lunch. Right now, for DH and I, I make up little baggies of baby carrots, cut fruit, individual hummus cups, string cheese, muffins, etc. and leave it all on a tray in our fridge. Then I pack up sandwiches (dry - just meat and/or cheese, without any wet fillings), and we can just grab whatever we need in the morning. I think it would be a great thing to do for kids too.

The vast majority of the students at the school I work in qualify for free/reduced lunch and there's only a handful in each grade that pack. Our kiddos have a choice of three entrees each day (today was grilled chicken sandwich, turkey lunchmeat sandwich, or macaroni and cheese). They also have a choice of several fruits and veggies (today we had carrots, baked beans, cucumbers, fruit cocktail, pineapple, and maybe some others). They have to take at least one fruit or veggie but can take one of each if they want, just not two of the same thing. Some days I really question the healthfulness of the choices. It drives me nuts when they put a chocolate chip cookie with only one entree and it's usually something that kiddos don't want to eat (like chicken alfredo). I can't tell you how many kindergarteners eat a cookie and milk for lunch on those days! Argh!