My daughter came to my office with me the other day and someone asked her what she had for lunch.

"Corn dog, french fries, chocolate milk..."

I was like, wow...isn't that special? We might have to start packing lunches.

What do you guys think about the lunch menus in Alachua County. Do you pack your kids lunch or do they eat the school lunch?

And if they eat at school, do you know the menu?

My oldest starts PreK this August, but we have made it a point to pre-discuss a lot of schooling issues. Lunches is def. one of them. Mainly for my in-laws sake, they prefer a vegetarian diet (mainly for their religion) but in our experience, we agree in so many other ways (to pack a lunch).

In the 'today' we are all becoming so much more involved and aware.

Since having kids we have taken a hold of our diets by the neck. We cut out soda from the house (when our oldest was a baby), we became very stingy with sweets and started incorporating a much more balanced daily intake (for us that meant more fruit).

Recently we have taken away juice (did you know even 100% juice really isn't? and that it is pretty much all sugar? natural or not) we have also gotten rid of vitamins (synthetically made doesn't sound right). Instead we are sure to eat 2-3 full sized fruits a day between us (oranges, bananas are our faves, also strawberries etc.) You are what you eat right? The problem with balanced diets is keeping in mind that it is daily. Having a little bit of everything each day is what the body needs to be balanced every day... not a few days a week :P which is where we were before.

Anyway, I am not sure I can put all my faith in school lunches not knowing how they are truly prepared and where they are coming from. We choose to make things our kids and us favor. Less room for error or ooppss sickness from factories producing spinach ha ha ha.

as a sidebar, we have noticed in raising our kids that if you do what everyone else does, you end up like everyone else. Being involved instead of just following the norm goes a long way. Checking out vaccines before your child gets them (many are rushed through production and cause serious problems-I am not implying the autism outbreak ) but also things like school/daycare and assuming all is well with teachers etc. I know a lot of us get really busy but any little bit of time to 'drop in' goes a loooooooooooong way. Be as involved as you can and that should be enough, right? I think I have a headache.

Alachua County has made a lot of changes to their menus. Nothing is fried, sugar content is monitored and veggies are making a comeback.

A pile of money was spent, there was a special committee and as part of a federal program, meals are now healthier. Not saying they are perfect, but they are trying.

My children eat school lunches. It is simply one area that i am letting someone else help. if they choose to get up and pack their own lunch, so be it but i do not have the time or energy to pack lunches. and honestly, for $1.50/day, they are fed well. no complaints from my son, he always goes back for seconds. my teenager would complain if you feed her a five course gourmet meal everyday.

hey suz...what's wrong with a corn dog and fries...we had them for supper last week!

I know that you are speaking about Alachua county specifically, but I'm going to guess that our school systems lunches are very similar.

I started packing Jordy's lunch at the beginning of the school year simply because that is what she chose to do. I would try not to pack the traditional sandwich each day, but rather I sent bagals, crackers and cheese and a variety of other items. Eventually though, Jordy decided to purchase lunch at school.

She has chicken sandwiches, nachos, salisbury steak, pizza, hamburgers, cheese sandwiches etc. etc. No, definitely not the healthiest of menus. However, looking over the menu, they are balanced meals. All of the food groups are covered and the price is decent ($1.50/day).

I'm sure that I could pack a healthier lunch for Jordy than what the school provides. However, it was costing me as much or more to buy the groceries to make Jordy a lunch every day. In this economy I know that I can't afford to spend more than I have to. I was also finding it somewhat difficult to get all the food groups in. So, I figure if Jordy is happy eating lunch at school, I don't see a problem with it. I ate school lunch most of my school career and it didn't harm me. I can assure you too that the lunches we ate back then were less healthy than they are now.

I know I also choose to concentrate more on what I serve my children for breakfast and dinner.

I use to pack my son's lunch when he was in elementary school. And as he got older he started telling me stories about those lunches. (You know, how we all have confessed to our parents after the fact) He told me that he and the other kids would trade food from each other's lunch bags. They even traded with kids that bought school lunch. Sometimes even though we think that we are controlling something, we really aren't.

ha ha it's funny how through our children's ages we loose the ability to do so much for them. And we just hope their heads are screwed on right.

I think as parents it's always on our minds (our kids)... I actually just had a two hour conversation with my mom about her mothering techniques and advice and experience. Comparing my experience with hers during the same time. Very enlightening in learning what things you just need faith for.

I give you 9 to 5-ers so much credit for doing all you can do and that is ALWAYS enough. I bet your kids are fantastic (can't wait to meet them!). I was a 9 to 5-er for so long that I am so glad to be where I am now because it was so tough.

Is anyone interested a veggie garden? Ever since we got our house, I have been trying and trying to build a huge green house of common veggies and herbs that we use. I love the farmers market but I find myself wanting to go back to my old ways of growing up in Vermont... Farming. My only two issues are cost of start up and having more than we would eat! Maybe I should start another thread LOOOL... ok here I go to start another thread.