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Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Tales From the School Cafeteria: Lunch Boxes and Mouse Bars

One of the many things that I've been surprised by as a parent is how food has changed in school. No, I'm not talking about hot dog day, casserole surprise or anything like that. What I've been surprised by is the amount of snacks in school nowadays. At my older son's preschool, he gets a snack every day. I've been told that when he is in the lower grades I will need to pack two snacks in addition to lunch. I personally always remember being hungry in school so to me this seems like a good idea.

I most distinctly remember feeling hungry in first grade, probably because that was my first experience with full day school. Every day when we walked into the classroom we would put our lunch in a laundry basket that was stored in the front of the room. This meant that during the last hour or so before lunch I would stare at the lunch bags and try hard not to let anyone hear my growling tummy. Because our lunch boxes were basically on display, lunchboxes were a really big deal. I think at one point the majority of the girls in the class, myself included, had red Hello Kitty lunchboxes that were shaped like a tool box. Another time I saved my allowance to be able to buy Hello Kitty lunch bags that I was careful to reuse multiple times because I liked them so much. How could I forgot the TGI Friday lunch bags I had later on in grammar school?

The best part of lunch though could not be kept in even the best of lunch bags. Our school cafeteria had a window where you could buy ice cream bars. It was just like having a good humor truck in our cafeteria. For $0.30, you could buy one of those Mickey Mouse ice cream bars that has a vanilla ice cream face and chocolate ice cream ears. Lucky was the boy or girl who found .30 in their lunch bag. Everyone would watch that child eat their ice cream in admiration and envy.

My husband and I spent our first anniversary at Disney World. Low and behold there were those Mickey Mouse ice cream bars everywhere. Of course I just had to see, for scientific purposes of course, if they were the same as I remembered. They were.

A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Bars are delicious for people of all ages.

Check out School Menu and its parental counterpart Family Everyday, two sites that work together with School Food Services Directors to provide and promote healthy eating and physical fitness for kids and their parents. I know that School Menu is geared more toward kids, but I love the graphics and animation. I enjoyed fooling around with a couple of the maze games myself, and the food and nutrition theme will be The site is fun and informative!

Labels: Toys / Clothes / Gear

posted by Alex Elliot @ 9:35 PM 3 comments

3 Comments:

At 6/06/2007 10:09 AM, Jenn in Holland said…

Ah, lunch boxes!
I remember....
I like that the kids get more snack time than I seem to remember we had in school at the same age. It's good for them to get a break and it's good for the brain to get a nutritional boost.
From a teacher's perspective though it is disappointing when you look out and children are having Jelly Beans or Cheetos for their mid morning snack. Eek!
At 6/06/2007 11:44 AM, Laura Lohr said…

No fair! We never got Mickey Mouse ice cream bars. I do remember those runny little cups of ice cream we had in the cafeteria though. 1000 curses to our lunch lady!
At 6/06/2007 7:49 PM, soccer mom in denial said…

Ice cream sandwiches are what I remember. And they taste the same today.

Thanks for highlighting initiatives that support healthy eating and excersize.

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Name:	Alex Elliot
Home:	MA, United States
About Me:	Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 5 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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