Originally Posted by Pammie:
I provide all meals and snacks during the school year.
During the summer, I provide breakfast and snacks but not lunches. We're so extra busy outdoors and on adventures during the summer, it's so much easier to have all of the kids bring their lunch! My dc parents don't mind - as I don't ask for extra $ for outings - I tell them it all balances out by them providing lunch. So far, no one has complained.
But my rule is that anything that the kids don't eat does not go in the trash - it comes back home in the lunchbox - so the parents can see for themselves what their child did/didn't eat. So I don't wash their little containers either. I do make sure that everything is sealed tightly, so they don't have a mess by the time that they get back home. But especially for my s/a kids who are used to throwing away any food they don't want to eat at school - it's a great way to keep them honest when their mom/dad ask, "did you eat all your lunch?" It also helps if the parents see that the same food is coming back home every day for a week - to change it up a little in the lunchbox
So if you're washing all of those little containers, are you throwing away the foods that the kids don't eat??
I was wondering how do you handle if the parents send junk food in lunches? I provide all the food. I watched a friends granddaughter for her and the girls Mom sent lunch for her. She said it was in case she didn't like what I made. I didn't say anything because it was for one day only. I fed her what everyone else ate. I was curious what she sent for her, so I looked in her bag and it was Beefaroni and cheese puffs. Those are two things I would never serve. I would rather provide the food myself to make sure they are eating healthy.