Ok so I posted on here about not serving dinner and wanting to change the food schedule. Well with Children's Hunger Alliance I can claim a snack and two meals or two snacks and a meal. Of course you get paid more for the meals. So I have come up with this schedule let me know what ya think.

A.M. Snack @ 9 am
Lunch @ 12 Noon
Dinner @ 4pm

Of course for dinner will be more like a snack but have all the 4 componets. Do you think that will work, or should I just bite the extra money and make it P.M. snack? I really want the parnents to be more involved and have atleast one meal with their child.

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I personally would stick with snacks and make the primary meal lunch. You might get a higher portion back for a meal, however, you are putting more money from your own pocket into the meal so it still would cost you more serving two meals and one snack than two snacks and one meal!

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Hmmm 4 seems kind of early for dinner. My family doesn't eat until around 6/7. I would think with todays working world ad how late people get ff work, that people eat later than 20/30 years ago when dad came home and mom had dinner ready by 5/5:30pm. Now with so many working moms too kwim ?
However , maybe parents would like it if you made it at 5pm so all they had to do was give their kid a snack and a barh and put him/her to bed, making it more convenient for them? After all soooo many people care about convenience, that might work great . I just think 4 is early for a full supper.

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I see that you are trying to get the reimbursement for two meals and one sanck since that nets the most money.

I would and do, do the same but i do it like this:

A.M. snack @ 9:00
Lunch @ 12 noon
P.M. snack @ 3:00

I claim 2 meals and one snack because my A.M. snack contains all the components of breakfast but I call it snack so parents do not send their child starving to daycare in the mornings.

I leave dinner to the families as I think family dinner in the evenings is really important. Especially when breakfast and all other meals are usually right before they need to leave to be somewhere or are on the go.

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I agree with blackcat. Also as a parent, a 4:00 dinner would put me neither here nor there. If you are serving all 4 components, the kids are going to fill up. What kind of snack anyway would you serve that would fit the bill. My kid would be full enough not to eat supper an hour or 2 later, but not able to last until bedtime. What would be an example of something you would serve that would qualify as "dinner" but really be a snack? Seems much easier to play that game so to speak at breakfast.

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what is the earliest you can serve "dinner" on your food program. Server "dinner" at that time but call it PM sanck only your food program needs to call it dinner. I do something simliar with moring snack on non-school days I serve "breakfast" at 8:45 that is the latest that my food program will let me serve "breakfast" I call it am snack when talking to the children as most of them eat breakfast at hone first.

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They have never told me any times that I could or could not use, just that it had to be 2 hrs. in between. Dinner would be more on the lines of snack, just name it dinner. An example: Cheese stick, crackers, grapes and apple slices

I use to do dinner at 5, and then the kids was going home at 6 and eating again. Which is fine, if they want to eat. But Im just trying to cut back on my part, but still get the most out of the food program. Most of my kids leave now right before or at 5 so that is why I am changing it up.

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4pm is way too early for dinner. Serving that amount of components will put a child off from eating an actual decent dinner at home and as a parent that would not be ok with me.

The reason why you get reimbursed more for meals is because you have to feed more, which costs more. You feed less at snack, which costs less. It all evens out, just one is much more work.

I would do as BC suggested and make it a typical 3:00 snack.

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Honestly the dcp's I have now could care less what time they are fed, not being mean but they don't. And most won't get dinner till 6 or later. 3 won't work cause they are still napping then. I am not making a huge dinner to where they will be so full they cannot eat. Just thought about adding an extra fruit or veggie to be able to claim it for dinner.
Or just do a 4pm snack, idk..lol

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This is exactly what I do too!

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I think some of you are getting way too tripped up on the semantics of the issue, and I've seen this before around here. If she was calling it a snack but serving, for example, crackers, cheese, carrots, and grapes...would that bother you as much as her calling it dinner?

Personally I don't think a 4 PM snack is very late at all. We don't have snack until 3:45 or 4 because of bus times. I've always, always had afternoon snacks around 4...even in elementary school. It's never stopped my dcks, my own kids, or myself from eating dinner. Most dcks go home starving every day and I'm shifting to larger snacks ("dinners") because the parents are asking why their kids are so starving at the end of the day. Most of these parents have to go home and then cook the dinner, so I know these kids aren't eating until 6 or later most nights. Mine sure aren't.

OP, I think your schedule looks just fine.

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Thank You

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This is what I will be doing also!
Even if it were dinner, 4pm is definitely not too early!
I always had my lo's on a bedtime schedule which started at dinner. They are in bed by 7, so they eat dinner no later than 5. Before they started school they had dinner at 4pm. When they were little I wish they had gotten something at daycare at 4 or so bc I didn't pick up until 5.
I'm doing that too!!

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