I know for my DD they did class snacks in kindergarten because it was mandated by the state they provided them a snack for that grade. So that made it where they knew each kid had a snack each day. By 1st grade it’s not longer mandated so kids pack their own snack factoring in any allergies. In kindergarten, you were allowed to pack a snack for your child everyday if you wanted instead but they’d offer them the group snacks if you forgot.
Oh good point. Kindergartners also had to be offered milk. That stopped in 1st.
I’m all for people feeding what works best for their families, not telling people “it’s a bit much” if they want to feed something differently. Some people can’t do fruit snacks/leathers/dried fruit because of dental stuff. Some people’s kids respond differently to sugar. Some people’s kids need more fat or protein in a snack than others. I truly don’t understand being judgy about Oreos over goldfish though. They have almost the same amount of sugar per serving (11g vs 13g). What’s the reason why dentists don’t like Oreos over goldfish?
Unless I’m missing something, the OP asked about 24 individually wrapped snacks that are shelf stable. I didn’t see anything about the nutritional content required. Perhaps the OP was edited before I read it.
The OP didn’t even seem to have a problem at first, she asked for suggestions. This post took a quick turn to “oh noes not the smiling fish”.
If you want your kid to eat fruits and veggies as snack I would email the teacher and ask if that’s an option. I would ask if it could be made at home and put in a reuseable bag if the environment is the problem.
My comment of asking why was in response to yours saying someone’s suggestions of pistachios or homemade bars “was a bit much,” not the OP. I see that my NI was from chocolate goldfish, not cheddar which totally makes sense why I was not getting the distinction between them. My kiddo is allergic to dairy and can’t have goldfish (but coincidently can have Oreos and we had in the house) so I had looked at the wrong one.
That's a ridiculous policy that practically forces you to feed your kid junk.
I would probably send my kid in with 24 baggies of the peanut-butter filled pretzels that I buy at costco in the large tub. Or 24 baggies of pistachios that I'd pre-shelled. Or homemade lara balls (date and nuts, basically, but they're quite sweet). None of those are awesome but given the constraint, I'd be comfortable with them for my kid.
This is a bit much
Sorry, boiler this is the exchange I was responding to.im on my phone and quotes are getting weird.
Post by redpenmama on Aug 16, 2019 18:00:17 GMT -5
At our school, it's usually some variation of Goldfish, crackers, Pirate's Booty, dry cereal, popcorn, or pretzels. Like yours, it has to be shelf stable but not individually wrapped because they all get the same thing, so the teacher distributes it. Our school switches to individual snacks in 1st grade (and then phases them out by 2nd), and while I do prefer being able to send in my own snack, I'm honestly just glad he's getting a snack between breakfast at 6:30 and lunch after 12.
Well, for reasons (disadvantaged school population, weird lunch hours, sending snacks for just my kid or allowing teachers to buy snacks made me feel like a dick)- we've provided snack for our kids' elementary classes for 6 years (our 4th grader's class hasn't asked [yet], DS's teachers requested snacks through 5th).
Crap (LOL) that was popular enough to be repeated: pretzels, pre-poppped popcorn, goldfish(!!!), nilla wafers, rice cakes, mini granola bars, graham crackers, and cereal. We bought bulk items to minimize wrapping (but most of these were available individually), we needed shelf stable, reasonably low mess, no utensils needed to serve/eat, and universally appealing.
Post by bookqueen15 on Aug 16, 2019 20:10:59 GMT -5
Interesting to see these responses, as they don't allow snack at all in my daughters kindergarten class. School starts at 7:40, her class has lunch at 11:15 and school gets out at 1:55 so it is a shorter day than most, so I guess that's why.
Post by UMaineTeach on Aug 16, 2019 20:42:32 GMT -5
I literally do not have time in my day to police snacks.
Semi related story: We have universal free breakfast that has a snack in it that kids can save, but exactly 0.5% of the people on this board would allow their child to eat any of it. Maybe the milk.
We have universal free fruit and vegetable grant that provides each student, plus staff and anyone else who walks by the bin, a snack.
The whole communal snacks thing is bizarre to me in general. I guess I don’t understand the point? Why can’t kids just bring in their own snack every day? Is it to ensure there are always snacks on hand so no one goes hungry if they forget one? Because otherwise I don’t get it.
ETA: I do get providing snacks for disadvantaged school populations, but even then it seems like the school should be providing the food? Or does that not happen? Didn’t mean to sound overly privileged/obnoxious in my response. But it just seems like a communal snack basket is a recipe for disaster (kids fighting over the “good” snacks, allergies, etc).
I don’t remember the website-it does crowdsourcing to fund teacher’s- but you quite often see requests to buy snacks for their students. Our district does free breakfast for all kids and has a high number of free/reduced lunch students. Bringing a snack everyday would be a huge burden to their families.
We‘ve done communal snacks for the last 3 years and I have heard no parent, student or teacher complaints. Parents donate boxes of “healthy” individual snacks if they can/want to. I tend to do a large amazon order a few times a year and send stuff directly to the teacher. Most of the year, the teacher tries to give everyone the same snack, but by the end of the year, kids pick from the leftovers. We can send individual snacks if we want but most people don’t.
The whole communal snacks thing is bizarre to me in general. I guess I don’t understand the point? Why can’t kids just bring in their own snack every day? Is it to ensure there are always snacks on hand so no one goes hungry if they forget one? Because otherwise I don’t get it.
ETA: I do get providing snacks for disadvantaged school populations, but even then it seems like the school should be providing the food? Or does that not happen? Didn’t mean to sound overly privileged/obnoxious in my response. But it just seems like a communal snack basket is a recipe for disaster (kids fighting over the “good” snacks, allergies, etc).
The majority of this school is not disadvantaged although quite a bit of the district is. All kids in the district are eligible for free breakfast and lunch.
I literally do not have time in my day to police snacks.
Semi related story: We have universal free breakfast that has a snack in it that kids can save, but exactly 0.5% of the people on this board would allow their child to eat any of it. Maybe the milk.
We have universal free fruit and vegetable grant that provides each student, plus staff and anyone else who walks by the bin, a snack.
I am pretty confident that the majority of this board would be horrified at what is provided in our school’s backpack program, our aftercare snacks and our school lunches. As usual, this board does not represent the realities of many people.
m Yes, the school vacation and long weekend snack packs for the poor are all quick metabolizing carbs, but participation is optional.
Lunch and breakfast both meet federal requirements,The big sticking point is that we only have money to pay kitchen staff 3-4 hours a day and must rely on government cheese (and other government commodities) to afford meals. So, it’s frozen and canned food for lunch and a bagged breakfast put out by Big Cereal.
Post by minniemouse on Aug 16, 2019 21:33:39 GMT -5
I’m not sure if this was mentioned already but Quaker quakes rice snacks come in individual servings. We like the apple cinnamon and caramel corn flavors, but they also have savory flavors. Smartfood white cheddar popcorn is also a hit around here. Peanut butter crackers (if there are no allergies in the room). Sunflower or pumpkin seeds Rice Krispie treats (8g sugar, not as bad as some other options). Little bites muffins
We do communal snacks in K. If there is an allergy in the classroom, parents are given the information and asked to choose a snack that fits in those guidelines. So far, in K,1, and 2 we’ve only had one peanut allergy, but it was mild enough that other students didn’t need to avoid certain snacks. (Kids bring their own starting in 1st.)
I think they do it for several reasons. The first being that fewer kids will forget. I forget snacks for DS1 frequently, but never forgot when it was his snack day. The next, and likely just as important, reason is that kids LOVE being the snack kid. They love to share what they brought and pass it around to other kids. It’s my kids’ favorite day!
I stick to things that I know most kids will eat. The only thing worse than individual packaging for the environment in this situation is providing 24 snacks that only 2 kids will eat. My kids will eat lots of different foods that other kids wouldn’t touch, so I don’t send that for snack. A bunch of it will end up in the garbage and then the teacher will have lots of hangry kids. The only “win” in that situation is the mom who gets to feel like she’s great for sending a snack that fits her standards.
Our snacks don’t have to be store bought or individually wrapped (though that makes things a million times easier for the teacher). While some snacks are healthier than others, they’ve never gotten cookies or candy or anything like that for snack. It’s all pretty reasonable.
My kids eat whatever is served at school for lunch and snack. After school snacks are generally fruits, veggies, or other healthy options. We talk about food choices from time to time, but I mostly model it by what I buy, eat, and serve. I try to make food a complete non-issue. (We’re lucky in that we have no food allergies and both boys have been on their same growth curve since birth. I realize this callot happen for some families.)
The whole communal snacks thing is bizarre to me in general. I guess I don’t understand the point? Why can’t kids just bring in their own snack every day? Is it to ensure there are always snacks on hand so no one goes hungry if they forget one? Because otherwise I don’t get it.
ETA: I do get providing snacks for disadvantaged school populations, but even then it seems like the school should be providing the food? Or does that not happen? Didn’t mean to sound overly privileged/obnoxious in my response. But it just seems like a communal snack basket is a recipe for disaster (kids fighting over the “good” snacks, allergies, etc).
Oh, with all our extra money, right? We won't even have after school clubs this year, unless we find a way to fund them with advisory council money or PTO (haha forever) funds- because the district pulled 75% of our meager discretionary funds to cover other funding shortfalls.
We have >80% of our population on F&RLs (so most of our kids need to go through a lunch line, cramping their eating time into 5-10 minutes). We also serve breakfast to our entire population, but, hey- we average 23% tardy, so some of our neediest kids don't get that daily, either.
Because our cafeteria was designed for less than the ~650 kids we've had the last few years, we get lunch times like 10:22 and 12:54- even my children are hungry with that much time between meals. Hungry kids are at a huge disadvantage for learning, so if we don't provide snacks, teachers take it out of their own funds (and I am not going to let that happen while we can easily afford to swing it). I have no idea how namasteak 's school will handle things, it may just be an ask (that they know they won't get), or maybe it works well for them. Not all public schools are even remotely equal, and tend to bend to the populations they serve- so I'll assume they know what they're doing.
Hm, that is tough! I'd probably err on the side of goldfish, pretzels and bars of some kind.
If your kiddo's teacher is looking for feedback, I would suggest what our school does: kids bring a snack daily, and teachers ask parents for donations of snacks to cover for kids in case of a missing snack. Apparently, the school snacks were so good, my kid was openly hoping I would forget to pack her snack, lol.
ETA - this is interesting to read how other schools do snacks! Ours is in sequence with recess - kids go out and run for 20 minutes, come inside and pick out their milk or water for snack break, and then eat their snacks and relax for a bit.
This is exactly what I do. I always have extra snack on hand and I make it a choice. Do you want the classroom snack (goldfish, pirates booty,etc)? Or do you want the snack you brought from home? I don’t care what the kids eat at snack time as long as it’s not their main lunch. Depending on the schedule I usually have snack right after morning recess. And I really dislike milk being sent to school. I don’t want it spilling in the room. Water bottles are perfect.
The big switch in K IMO is that kids can have a meal account with pin, and there is a certain loss of control. They are living their own lives with that pin, lol. K and first students cannot buy snacks at my school, only meals and milk.
But my son certainly enjoyed buying chocolate milk, even when he had a thermos. He also treated himself to the third breakfast of his day when friends were hanging out in the cafeteria, lol.
DD2 has second breakfast at school many days because they have coco puffs and we don’t at home. She’s a healthy, active kid- I’m not going to worry too much.
share.memebox.com/x/uKhKaZmemebox referal code for 20% off! DD1 "J" born 3/2003 DD2 "G" born 4/2011 DS is here! "H" born 2/2014 m/c#3 1-13-13 @ 9 weeks m/c#2 11-11-12 @ 5w2d I am an extended breastfeeding, cloth diapering, baby wearing, pro marriage equality, birth control lovin', Catholic mama.
I get this, but if you’re talking about a disadvantaged population, wouldn’t it possibly be a financial burden to ask parents to send in snacks for 30 kids each month all at once? I take your word that schools do what works and you’re right that maybe schools wont ask unless they know it will work. Still, it seems to me like schools with a high percentage of free/reduced lunch kids should be getting funding for stuff like this. But I realize this probably doesn’t happen in reality and is all part of the problem with school funding tied to property taxes
Teachers aren't requesting a months of snacks for 30 kids (at most, due to what's left of our class size amendment, we've had 20 in elementary), they just ask for donations. And it's a footnote on a monthly-ish newsletter in most cases- not a bullhorn request. Most people provide what they can, be that nothing- or a bag of popcorn once a month- or a weekly bulk snack- and yes, we have some incredible, dedicated teachers who fill in the rest.
Our school does receive Title I funding tied to our F&RL percentage (and it's a nail biter most years, even with 4/5 kids qualifying). It covers a reading coach and (sometimes) a math coach (certified "floating" teachers without classes of their own, who work with the kids who need the most help in those areas). I'm honestly not sure if "snacks" could be worked into that funding (legally), but, the coaches are definitely more important (and not something struggling families can provide at all).
FWIW, we absolutely love this school, the friends we've made, and the opportunities we've had to be involved- and our kids have thrived, even with (because of?) the challenges.
I don’t remember the website-it does crowdsourcing to fund teacher’s- but you quite often see requests to buy snacks for their students. Our district does free breakfast for all kids and has a high number of free/reduced lunch students. Bringing a snack everyday would be a huge burden to their families.
We‘ve done communal snacks for the last 3 years and I have heard no parent, student or teacher complaints. Parents donate boxes of “healthy” individual snacks if they can/want to. I tend to do a large amazon order a few times a year and send stuff directly to the teacher. Most of the year, the teacher tries to give everyone the same snack, but by the end of the year, kids pick from the leftovers. We can send individual snacks if we want but most people don’t.
Maybe my problem is that I literally don’t ever remember “snack time” being a thing growing up, lol. My elementary school offered breakfast and hot lunch. There was no designated snack time. We couldn’t have food in the classrooms at all.
But if this is a thing and teachers need parents to donate (just like they would with school supplies), I would support it. I’d still be concerned about allergies/dietary needs etc.
Yes! We didn’t snack when I was in school. We just ate lunch.
When I taught lower elementary, they didn’t get snacks then either. We had free breakfast, all day Pre-K and K with fairly early lunch times but it was a full 8 hr day with no snack breaks.
Logistically it seems messy IMO. We didn’t have a sink in the room and I’d think crumbs would get everywhere. We had enough mice problems without kids eating in the rooms. I also think it is an added expense many parents would rather do without. The cheapest option would probably be Costco but the closest one to the city is a least 20 minutes away and not on a bus line. Most neighborhoods in the city don’t even have a grocery store.
I think having free breakfast for everyone can make going the day without snack time easier.
For schools that don't offer free breakfast onsite, many kids have already gone 1-2 hrs (maybe more if they leave the house around 6/6:30 with their parents) without eating before school even starts. As a kid I ate a really simple breakfast at home (toast, maybe cereal), then was taken to daycare where I spent about an hour. Then the bus picked me up, I arrived at school, waited in the gym for 20 mins prior to teachers coming to collect us, etc. I would have been starving without morning snack time.
I do remember in 1st or 2nd grade we had an insanely early lunchtime (like 10:40), so our snack period was in the afternoon. But otherwise we had snack until 6 grade. (Middle school started in 7th for us.)
Post by expectantsteelerfan on Aug 17, 2019 12:22:57 GMT -5
I have never been so glad our school doesn't allow snacks, for any grades, ever. They don't eat in the classrooms at all, even for parties (no food allowed at parties at all). K is only 1/2 day, but if they do kPlus they still just get a lunch time like all the other grades.
I have never been so glad our school doesn't allow snacks, for any grades, ever. They don't eat in the classrooms at all, even for parties (no food allowed at parties at all). K is only 1/2 day, but if they do kPlus they still just get a lunch time like all the other grades.
So you’d rather kids go hungry and not be able to concentrate on learning, just because snacks are kind of an inconvenience?
My kid’s elementary school was designed for about 600 kids and currently has 980. School goes from 7:45-2:00. First lunch starts at 10:15 and last lunch is at 12:50, and each class gets about 20 minutes in the lunch room. I can promise you that very few little kids who eat a good solid breakfast can make it until 12:50 without eating something and still be able to remain alert and focused. Now figure that many kids have food insecurity and aren’t eating full meals for either breakfast OR lunch, and they for sure will need a small snack at some point during the day.
Personally, I’m glad that schools have recognized this and built an opportunity for a snack into the day so that kids don’t have to learn on an empty stomach, even if it can be a pain sometime.
If I didn’t allow for snack time in my class, all I would here is “I’m hungry. When’s lunch?”
I even snack! I can’t function if I don’t eat. Some kids have to get up so early for before school care and need food before lunch which last year was around 11:00. That’s way too long to go without food for anyone.
I have never been so glad our school doesn't allow snacks, for any grades, ever. They don't eat in the classrooms at all, even for parties (no food allowed at parties at all). K is only 1/2 day, but if they do kPlus they still just get a lunch time like all the other grades.
So you’d rather kids go hungry and not be able to concentrate on learning, just because snacks are kind of an inconvenience?
My kid’s elementary school was designed for about 600 kids and currently has 980. School goes from 7:45-2:00. First lunch starts at 10:15 and last lunch is at 12:50, and each class gets about 20 minutes in the lunch room. I can promise you that very few little kids who eat a good solid breakfast can make it until 12:50 without eating something and still be able to remain alert and focused. Now figure that many kids have food insecurity and aren’t eating full meals for either breakfast OR lunch, and they for sure will need a small snack at some point during the day.
Personally, I’m glad that schools have recognized this and built an opportunity for a snack into the day so that kids don’t have to learn on an empty stomach, even if it can be a pain sometime.
I am glad that my kids have snack time. In elementary school they either had an early or late lunch so snack was before or after lunch. A student focused on hunger is not focused on learning. My eighth grader had a "snack time" this year. Her school day started at 7:30 and lunch was not until 12:40. The teachers fought with the district to allow the students to bring a snack into the classroom. They recognized the kids needed food during that long stretch of classes.
the free breakfasts in our district are so bad. Very lacking in protein, very high in sugar. It makes me mad that we can't offer better breakfast options. Lunch is much more well rounded. Whoever mentioned "Big Cereal" upthread it totally makes sense now!
here are examples from this month, they can pick one of the options
A. cinni minis B. Trix Bar and yogurt
A. Cinnamon Toast Crunch bar B. Apple Jacks Pouch and string cheese
the free breakfasts in our district are so bad. Very lacking in protein, very high in sugar. It makes me mad that we can't offer better breakfast options. Lunch is much more well rounded. Whoever mentioned "Big Cereal" upthread it totally makes sense now!
here are examples from this month, they can pick one of the options
A. cinni minis B. Trix Bar and yogurt
A. Cinnamon Toast Crunch bar B. Apple Jacks Pouch and string cheese
plus a piece of fruit and milk or juice
Ours are equally bad. Sometimes they will have “good” breakfast food for lunch — sausage and pancake on a stick or French toast sticks and sausage links. I’m not saying these are particularly healthy options, but they at least are filling and have protein. They charge less for breakfast, so the expensive stuff gets served at lunch when they can charge more.
VillainV yup I think maybe twice a month they have a breakfast option with sausage. I mean it's better than nothing but I still think it's pretty shameful how much sugary cereal makes up the breakfasts.
My district switched from 1/2 K to full day which meant they had to accommodate another grade of kids for lunch. Our schedule is: 9:20 school starts 11:00-1:30 lunch 3:45 school ends
Kindergarten kids eats at 1:30. My kids would not make it that long without a snack. I’m glad they have snack time. Little kids are *generally* used to 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. At least that’s how most daycares are set up. I just don’t see a reason to make that stop in K.
Post by fancynewbeesly on Aug 17, 2019 19:39:25 GMT -5
I am so glad our school we pack a “healthy snack” in her lunchbox for snack time. DD is the pickiest of picky eaters and 99% of shelf stable snacks she won’t eat. Her snack is always fruit.
We have a hot option at breakfast daily, I think the "quick" options are available even to the tardy kids, so I don't mind them offering them. It looks like we even have take-home supper options this year, too- I haven't had any advisory meetings yet, so I'm not sure how that works yet.
I am so glad our school we pack a “healthy snack” in her lunchbox for snack time. DD is the pickiest of picky eaters and 99% of shelf stable snacks she won’t eat. Her snack is always fruit.
I have NEVER heard of a school that forces shelf stable snacks- BYO is always an option.