Ah, the school lunch. The cafeteria has come a long way since I was in grammar school, where you had one meal option and one “alternate” Sandwich choice. Even by the time I was in high school, the cafeteria had stepped up to compete with the local eateries in town, offering multiple hot and cold meal choices.
Still, your kids might not want to chow down on cafeteria food every day — or you might want to save money and send lunch from home. Here are some tips to help ease the lunchtime battle.
- Set a lunch allowance. My parents gave me a certain amount of money for lunch each week. I could use it to eat (cheaply) at the cafeteria or spend more and eat out (at my high school, we were allowed to walk downtown for lunch). If I ran out of money, I could use my own or bring lunch from home.
- Pay attention to the cafeteria menu. If you want to limit cafeteria eating for whatever reason, have your kids pick out a few meals per week that they really want… and brown bag it the rest of the time.
- Pack lunch the night before. Save yourself from scrambling in the morning to either throw something together or find cash for the cafeteria. Planning ahead gives you an extra few minutes of breathing room in the morning.
- Have the kids help pack lunch. Parents don’t have to do all the work here — have the kids decide what they want (a sandwich, leftovers, a salad, etc) and help pack it up the night before. This way, the child gets to eat something he or she wants… and mom and dad don’t have to do all the chef work. I had a friend who almost always got salami sandwiches in her lunch… and hated them. You can only trade so many times before everybody else gets tired of salami sandwiches, too!
- Invent healthy versions of the cafeteria’s greatest hits. Pizza day was always the most popular day to buy lunch when I was in school. Why not fix up a homemade pizza bagel — whole wheat bagel, marinara sauce, low-fat cheese, your favorite veggies — instead? It might just taste better than the cafeteria version.