Norman Rockwell illustrations are perfect for back to school posts.  I just love them. And yes, very VERY much days gone by.

Today’s topic is school lunch.  Not the menu necessarily, but have school lunches improved really under Obama? While in some regards, yes, definitely, I have to wonder.  I did however, find a recent article in Politico informative on that topic.

Our school starting this school year uses a company named Whitsons for lunches.  Now interestingly enough I read an article in The Day out of Connecticut where one school district used to use this company and chose another called Chartwells because they felt they were getting healthier options at the same cost. The other thing about Chartwells is they believe in sustainability and for their school lunch programs they like to source food locally.  Considering we live in a county that has amazing farms, and so do adjacent counties companies committed to  supporting local agriculture and sourcing food locally is very appealing.

However, I will note no complaints thus far on the school lunches. The reports have been the food is a much higher quality and there is more variety and it is overall more tasty and much fresher. But this post really is not about the food service company used for school lunches because my research indicates that Whitsons has a very good solid reputation.  What this post is really about is lunchtime scheduling.

Our son eats lunch at 10:30 a.m. every day. Not one or two days a week. Every day. He is a high school teenage boy. Eating lunch at 10:30 a.m. means by noon he is hungry and by the time he gets home, ready to pass out. The flip side is I hear of very young elementary school age children eating lunch at the same school at 1:30 p.m.

HUH? So yes, I will be once again buying protein bars so he can tuck one in his back pack for a snack, but that is not the point. The point is it is just too darn early in my opinion.

What time do your kids eat their lunch at school? And I will note there is no snack break or recess because it is high school. Friends I know who are either educators or in related fields say this is a common phenomenon with kids being starving by 1 p.m. or so.

I had thought we had been told last year that last year was the last year of lunch at breakfast time, and once this year rolled around, lunch would not be quite so early. Maybe if they alternated years so different sections of classes didn’t always get stuck with 10:30 a.m. or if it was only a couple of days a week I wouldn’t be complaining and writing this post.

So let’s talk school lunches.  What time do your kids eat lunch and what do you think about the time they eat?

Do they like the school lunches or do they brown bag it? (It seems to me in general kids are not bringing their lunches as much as we did.)

Thoughts?