Piggyback: How Do YOU Handle Your Child (Rens) School Lunch Account?

we pack lunches daily. there have been O. or two instances (with my adhd kindergartener) that he has misplaced his lunch (yes, between the door and the classroom...*sigh*) (-and like Hazel - they fed him no questions asked. i was mortified lol) or i have been super rushed. so we keep $5-$10 on his account "just in case". we can also use it for school breakfast because he does before- and after-school care with the Y. so it has helped out with breakfast a time or two, too. from what i have seen, they send updates once a month or so, regardless of the balance.

I keep a SMALL amount in the account (in case they forget to bring) , and pack a lunch (or they do) typically with leftovers from the prior night's dinner.

Never have had an issue (even when they were littler folks).

Michele/cat

My grandkids get free lunches so I am truly grateful I don't have to worry about them ever going hungry.

As I added in Suz T's question of entitlement (not meant to flame, just to state what I failed to answer in the original question).

Our school district has a "Mylunchmoney.com" account. Where money is automatically transferred from our checking account to the lunch account when the account hits $5.00. We get an e-mail notification that the transfer is happening.

NONE of my children have EVER been denied a lunch. EVER. Why? Because unlike the parents of the original question - my kids are my priority and I don't expect other people to provide for them.

My daughter went to a DoD school in Belgium and Germany. Lunches were still "cheap" then.

Even with my daughter, as they do now for my boys school, we get a lunch menu for the month. If they don't like what is being prepared that day - they pack a lunch.

My youngest son does NOT like the pizza they serve on Friday's. So he makes and packs his own lunch Thursday evening. There are times I go buy the Lunchables for him (them) and they like that too.

With field trips - the school gives you an option to have a lunch made for your child or you can brown bag it yourself. Most times, my kids opt for a home made lunch for field trips.

My daughter also goes to a private Catholic school, but they do have a lunch program. They can choose from the main entree, a salad with grilled chicken or turkey meat, or PBJ. All options include 2 servings from a fresh fruit/salad/veggie bar, and milk. Or you can just pack a lunch from home and send it with them. We used to get the menu for the month a couple of weeks ahead of time and had to fill out a form, checking off what they wanted each day, and then send it in ahead of time with payment. Now they have just switched to an on-line system where you can order a lunch with as little as O. day's notice, or order a week's worth or the whole month in advance. But it has to be paid in full up front.

DD always wants the hot lunch option - I packed her lunch from home the first few weeks (she is in kindergarten) and then she started asking for the hot lunch instead. If she doesn't like the first option, she will go with the salad. Otherwise I would just pack a peanut butter sandwich from home with a couple of sides. There was O. day where they were not going to be having hot lunch, but I forgot and neglected to pack a lunch. I freaked out and called the school and it turned out that they were having a special fun day and had ordered pizza for all the kids. But they reassured me that they would never let a kid go hungry and always kept a stock of sandwiches, etc. on hand just in case. But there it is probably the exception for kids to not have any lunch option, rather than the norm.

My husband packs my daughter a lunch every day. I have money on her account for emergencies, like the other day when she forgot her lunch in her cubby at daycare. Or she can get a school lunch for a special occasion, like her birthday.

At the end of the year, I'll let her have school lunch for the last week to run out her account. That makes her feel like it's extra special.

We've never had them not give her a lunch even if she forgot. The way it works at her school is that if they forget, they put it on their lunch account and then you send money or add it online later.

we pack their lunches. My daughter has a wheat allergy, so she can not order. My son does have a lunch account but he is picky and will only order once every few months. So I pack both of their lunches. It's much healthier that way anyway.

in our catholic school, we order lunch 2 weeks before the next month starts. then we print out to remember which days we have ordered lunch. if i mess up a day, there isn't an option for my kids to get lunch so hungry they will go. that has never happened, but if it does, i know whose head to chew, mine.

Our school uses mylunchmoney.com - but my kids HATE "hot lunch" (which is what they call the cafeteria lunch). They refuse to eat it, so I pack their lunches every day.

The only bad experience we have had is that we HAVE TO fund the account at the beginning of the school year, whether or not we intend to use it (okay, whatever), and then each child has a 6-digit student ID number they are supposed to memorize. This is the way kids "pay" for their hot lunch - they tell the lunch lady their ID number. Imagine my surprise when I found out that my daughter's account had been charged $45! That's several weeks' worth of lunches. I went to the school to find out what was going on, pointed out that not only does my daughter bring lunch, but she actively HATES hot lunch and wouldn't buy it, and the school's attitude was "oh well!" They actually told me it was probably a Kindergartener who just didn't remember their own number. Umm, so it's okay for me to buy some other kid's lunch all year? NO. So I cancelled the debit card attached to the account. They keep trying to get me to fund the account (yet I still haven't been reimbursed the $45 of lunches my kid didn't order). Why do kids have to be numbers? Why can't they just use their actual names? *sigh*

Anyway. Bottom line, school lunch is vile, so we don't partake in that. The system they do use is dysfunctional, but it sure appears that the school has a work-around for kids who don't have any money in their account - they just charge it to those of us who do!

My kids never bought school lunch. I pack my son's lunch (8th grade) - not that he isn't capable of doing it himself but I just don't need another person messing around in the kitchen when I need to get things done and get to work. My daughter (senior in HS) packs up whatever food she's bringing.
If a kid was to "forget" a lunch in our district, they can charge a lunch. If you have a lunch account, a notice is sent home when the balance is running low (like 2 or 3 lunches worth left). If the account is empty, a kid can charge, but after three charges, the only lunch option is a cheese sandwich.

My son is in half-day kindergarten, mornings only. O. day a month, he has a 'late start' day and then eats lunch with the class.

I always pack him a lunch. I always tell him 'if you are thirsty, go get some water'-- they have a dispenser.

O. day I went to pick him up and he grinned and said "Mama! I had CHOCOLATE MILK!" (totally not supposed to have, dairy blows up his allergies) It turns out that his teacher had told him it was okay to grab a milk and use his card, which I *hadn't* put money on...but they let him anyway. I was mortified and put money on his card immediately, five dollars 'just in case'.

Now, when I pack his lunch, I add an almond milk to his lunchbox. But we'll now keep some extra money on the card... next year he'll be able to choose maybe O. hot lunch a week (or four a month) and otherwise, I'll still be packing it for him. He'll eat better and I know he likes what I pack.

I have an online account that I check frequently. I do have an interest in seeing what my son is eating at school. I feel that it is MY responsibility rather than the school's to ensure that my child has enought money on his account to eat. The schools have made is SO easy with the online system. I see no excuse why the accounts should run over...there is the free lunch program for those that have financial difficulties.

He tells me his account is low. It's his JOB to do that. I give him money to replenish his account. That's MY job. If he forgets to do that, he will not eat. He's a big boy. I expect him to act like O..

School lunch account. My kid is in Kinder so they will let it overdraft but will let you know that you have to come in and pay. I put it on autodraft so there is always enough.

When my daughter was in first grade, we used the account because it was easier. However, she was coming home STARVING, and evidently wasn't paying attention in school. She would also tell her teacher that she was hungry, and of course the teacher would tell her that there wasn't anything she could do.

Upon closer investigation, we found out she was purchasing dessert only with her card money. When I was in grade school they had a hot lunch line and they GAVE you the food. You didn't have a choice. There was no dessert option. This school had a hot lunch line and a dessert line as well. They didn't pay attention to what the kids were doing (how could you with so many kids?) Obviously who wants to eat FOOD when you can buy cookies instead? She would go to the dessert line instead of the hot lunch line and buy cookies.

We also wondered why her account was fine and we didn't receive any notices that we needed to replenish.

After that we made her take her lunch NO DESSERT. (We did find that the first few times we packed a dessert that she ate that first OF COURSE, then wasn't hungry for her food, and then was starving again.)

She is and always has been a sugar freak. Now we homeschool, so lunch is a home-cooked meal of her choice.

My freshman daughter packs a lunch every day. My 5th grade daughter packs a lunch most days. We do have an online account for school lunches but she rarely has school lunch anymore. I used to limit her to 1-2 school lunches a week but she seems to only have then 2-3 times a month.

I get an email when her account is low and reload her account at that time. I know there are delinquent lunch accounts for other kids but I don't think our school denies anyone a lunch. In fact my daughter told me that fresh fruit was free at school. I didn't believe her so I asked her teacher and, yep, it's true. We still pack fruit for her anyway.

Our school has an online system, with an automatic notification below a certain amount. It hasn't been a problem. I am willing to pack a lunch, but since there is always two options, she is OK with eating the school lunch.

Mine buy lunch most of the time. If they want to bring,they are old enough to pack their own. I'm with TF/Plano we use pay Pam's. I have it set up that when the account gets to $5.00 it automatically puts more in with my credit card. So no worries about missing an email or running out of funds.

I pack just about every day. We'll print the menu for the month and circle some days she likes what is being served and she can buy on those days. Not more than 2x per week. Of course, she likes Friday b/c it's pizza day and sometimes another day. I will usually let her ask about buying a lunch - I don't usually offer it because the food I put in her lunch box is healthier. Her friends mostly pack a lunch so she fits right in. Also, it takes so long to wait in line and they have so little time to eat, it really makes it hard for them.

They have cards that you put credit on. I put $50 at a time and get an email when it drops below $5 (you can set this "drop below" limit to anything you want). I only have to replenish it maybe once a year. She has never been denied bought lunch since I have plenty of notice to replenish the account.

We did have a problem once where I would pack a lunch and she would buy O. instead. This is why we started choosing and circling specific days on the monthly menu. And I showed her how I could check the computer to see which days she bought lunch and how they should match our calendar. Once she knew that it could all be checked, it hasn't been a problem. But, like I said, I also let her buy when she wants so it's not like it's something forbidden. She just has to be planful.

We do not have cafeterias in elementary schools here. My kids walk home for lunch once a week and take lunch to school the rest of the week. I buy milk tickets so they can buy milk at school. If they forget a milk ticket they drink water. We used to keep some emergency food (cereal) at school in case a child forgot to bring lunch, but our new principal decided she didn't like that idea. Now when a child forgets lunch they have to go to the office and call mom/dad/grandma etc to get someone to bring a lunch. If nobody is able to bring a lunch then the principal will get the child something to eat. I was annoyed earlier in the year when my son forgot his lunch and I wasn't home. It was 1:30 before the school could get hold of me and I could bring him his lunch, and he had to miss part of his class to eat it. He hasn't forgotten his lunch again though. Middle schools and high schools have cafeterias, but they are cash only, and most kids still bring lunches. If they forget lunch then they just go home and get something to eat.

Private Catholic school - no lunch program

Mondays are the only exception, when there is a "Fun Lunch," meaning a lunch provided by O. of the local restaurants. We pick the exact items they will eat at the beginning of the school year and pay for it in advance.

Tues-Fri we send a packed lunch

At my son's school they don't allow parents to drop off forgotten lunches. They believe that the kids learn responsibility by having to go without it if they forget it. It is the main focus of my morning to make sure my kindergarten son with ADHD has his lunch.

For both my own schooling in the 50's/60's, and my daughter's in the 70's/80's, we paid daily or took our own lunches. I had to skip lunches at times when my family was going through unusually tight times (we would clearly have been poverty-level through most of my early years). Sometimes those were extremely miserable days, and I'd spend all afternoon huddling over my empty stomach instead of participating in class.

But I had O. truly horrible "lunch event" that still brings tears today if I dwell on it. In 7th grade, I found a lunch ticket in the hedge at the edge of the baseball field. Yay, a free lunch! I had no idea that those tickets were registered by number to the student that bought them, so I was apprehended as a thief, trying to use someone else's ticket.

The lunch lady bawled me out in front of my friends and a cafeteria full of strangers, and told me to report to the Dean of Women. Who kept me waiting in tears for a miserable hour, then proceeded to rip me up O. side and down the other. She could not/would not hear that I had found the ticket and, like the 65 cents it was worth in those days, had no idea it could be returned to the purchaser. If I had been a thief, I would have set my sights a whole lot higher than 65 cents.

So the Dean made sure I was wretchedly sorry for my "thieving ways." It was over the top, unnecessary, and cruel. But it taught me the hard truth of "There is no free lunch!"

We pay into the lunch account. The lunch ladies send us an email and let us know when it needs more money. We've never been denied lunches, even when my eldest was $20 in the hole.

I only pack a lunch for field trips, if needed.

combination.
sometimes they take lunches sometimes they buy lunch.
But I make sure their accounts are always positive.

My daughter takes lunch from home everyday. Once in a blue moon she might buy something off the A la Cart, usually as a desert or a snack. But we usually pack enough food--and a variety--that she's full once she's done eating.

Since we eat organic, my daughter never has an issue with being hungry. She tells me how sad she is to watch what her other friends bring for lunch (those who bring from home); sugary snacks, pop, candy (She's in the 7th grade). No meat, no pasta, no sandwiches, no fruit, no veges, no lettuce salad. It truly breaks my heart to hear that these kids are going through their days with no fuel for their bodies or their brains. Sad.

And I don't put much stock into what the schools are actually feeding the students with their lunch programs. I've read too many horror stories of just what is--or should I say, isn't--in the food. Definitely not much nutrition.

It's like when you go to the grocery store or to WalMart and you buy 5 pizzas for $10, making each pizza $2.00 (or even buying a Tostino for $1.00). If you really stop to think what type of "food" they're using that each pizza is able to be sold for $2.00 a piece, well, it's not something I'd want to eat.

When my daughter has friends over and we have to feed them, I will buy pizzas from the grocery store--for the sole reason that her friends don't eat organic and don't like our food/what we eat. BUT when I buy a pizza, I buy a high-end pizza that costs $8, $9, $10 a pizza. And a "natural" pizza--not quite on the scale of an organic pizza, but a lot closer than a manufactured foodstuff.

My son takes his lunch about 95% of the time. I will send 20$ here and there to keep the account current. There have been a few times he has gone over the account and I didn't get a notice til he was 10-15$ over, the basic lunch is 2.00$ and can go up to 4.50 depending on choices. Even wih going over that much his lunch ladies have never denied him eating, or choosing what he wants.

I always placed $20. on her lunch account, but she took lunches from home almost every day k-12th grade.

We would talk about the weekly lunches on Sat or Sunday, before we went to the grocery store, so she could tell me what she wanted to take for the week.. and also what she wanted for breakfast that week,

At the end of the year, they send you a check with the balance of the account left over.

We never had problem..

We keep a small amount of $$ in the school lunch account as a back up for my son or if he wants to buy extra milk. But we always pack a lunch for him because he hates school lunch.

We pack a lunch every day.

Now that my daughter is 18 and a senior, she leaves campus for lunch.

Up until 10th grade when that was not allowed, we kept her account funded.

Our school system uses PayPams and you can go in and see what they are buying, add money to the account, etc. The funds transfer when you move on to another school. At graduation, if any monies are leftover, you are refunded the amount. Daughter does not eat at the school and she's had over $80 in her account over 2 years. If for some reason, she needs it, she can use it.

We checked the school menu's weekly and she would decide if she wanted to buy or take lunch.

Never had a bad experience or been denied lunch.

Now, as a regular substitute teacher in the elementary system, I often have lunch duty. They do not deny children with no money. If a child has no money in the account, they get a cheese sandwich, piece of fruit and milk. Notices are sent home to the parents to fund the account and most of them do send in payment. I do not know if there is a time limit on how many cheese sandwiches they get.

In my day, we had a lunch ticket you purchased on Monday and kept up with it all week. You lose it you don't eat.

During a typical school year, it's a combination of us putting money into their lunch accounts by doing it online as well as sending them to school with lunch. My children always qualify for reduced cost lunches but this year due to my husband having lost his job for the majority of last year and my having been a SAHM for the majority of last year, they qualified for free lunch.

Next year we'll still apply for reduced lunches even though we're both working now, just in case we qualify. When we do qualify for reduced lunches it costs much less than having the girls bring lunch in. The school lunches here aren't bad. Most of them are healthy with the occasional "fun and unhealthy" lunch like hotdogs or pizza that includes salad and another healthy side.

Only O. of my children was warned about being denied lunch once or twice, but they didn't actually do it. I had to refill her lunch account right away. She's in middle school now and claims that she's had to buy lunch for a friend of hers a few times because her friend's lunch account was in the negative and the lunch lady wouldn't let her put it on the tab. Then when the lunch lady figured out what my daughter was doing, she said that she couldn't allow my daughter to "buy" two free lunches. So my daughter just goes up and buys a la cart fruit and yogurt with her own money so that her friend can eat. The next day her friend repays her.

My oldest buys so infrequently it is not an issue. When she does buy I will typically send in the money for that day. On occasion I might just put a lump sum on her account and let it sit there. In some instances It has carried over from year to year. I can always see her balance on our "PowerSchool" account.

I do not permit the overpriced ridiculous snacks. I send her with a treat in her lunch everyday. If she happens to buy I will typically still send a snack and water so that she is not 'tempted'.

I think the whole snack and ice cream thing is a racket that doesn't belong in schools. I know many of parents that have sent their kid with $20 for two weeks of lunches and found their child's account in the red after 1 because their kid is buying snacks, and extra entrée, OR snacks for their friends. Why the heck is this allowed to go on?! So there is an instance where the account goes red real fast without the parents knowledge.

You can flag their account for "no snacks" but the lunch aides either ignore the request or ignore it when the child is paying cash.

Now my youngest has food allergies so she can not eat their lunches. I loved it when I started getting notices home from school telling me that her account had a $10 deficient. WTH?! I called them and told them that it must be a mistake since she couldn't eat the lunches if she wanted. My favorite part is that our school's system has their picture pop up when they enter their account number. Somebody was sleeping on the job over and over and over again to let someone else amass $10 debt on my child's account. After multiple delinquent notices and multiple phone calls and e-mails they finally cleared it off her account. Hopefully their cafeteria workers were retrained.

Long story short, the school lunch system is riddled with errors and I'm glad I don't have to deal with it on a regular basis.

When my older ones were in school that got free lunches most of the time. Sometimes they would pack a lunch, cause they didn't like the choices. then some years we paid. I never figured out how they determined it cause we make the same amount of money, but would be having more kids. There are 8 kids in total.

Our school let's you get pretty far into the negative, but they didn't actually tell you you were out until that point. We live very rural so running to get cash wasn't as simple as running up the street. They would pack on those days, or take the schools free lunch...my kids actually liked the free lunch.

Of my older kids, when the youngest was a senior you were able to do it online which made it so much nicer. My younger kids are home schooled, so lunches aren't an issue.

When I was a kid, I was on free lunch. But other kids went down once a week to buy their lunch tickets from the cafeteria during homeroom.

With the big kids, we sent them with lunch most days, but they had money for "whoops, I forgot" days or milk. We topped it off as needed and received notices about it. Usually they used it so little that $20 was enough for the whole year. The system will send notices if a child is low. I believe you can even add money online. DH usually took care of it, so I forget.

With DD, we plan to pack her lunch. It's just easier to know what she's getting and she has a food allergy that I'd like to keep an eye on til she's a little older.

I much preferred the "hand them your lunch ticket" because then you were the same as everyone else. I was never denied lunch, but I hated explaining that I received free lunch. Here, all the kids have an ID/PIN and that's what they tell the cashier.

If they had no money left, my understanding is that they could get a cheese sandwich and milk.

Too much stress to pack lunch each day as a working M.. School lunch works for me. Has a variety to choose from.

My son usually takes a packed lunch except for pizza day. There are some days that I forget the night before or we don't really have proper items to be sending in a lunch box, so then he'll eat the cafeteria lunch. He also eats the school breakfast everyday.

The first week of school, he was bringing his lunch, but kept forgetting to put it in the lunch box basket, so he'd go off to the cafeteria, get a lunch, and bring back his packed lunch that sat in his backpack all day. So that first week of school, he was negative by about $7. I didn't get any notices or anything and they never denied him lunch, but I had sent a payment the second week.

Our school has an online system where you can track purchases and account balances. I get an email when the balance goes below $8. You have to pay a service charge to fund it online, so I just send a check with him to give to his teacher. Usually $50 at a time. I just got a balance email, so I have to send another O. with him this week. I'm going to have to check with them to see how they handle overages. We may be moving to another school district next year and I don't want to lose any money he may still have on there.

I write a check to the school when the lunch account gets low (they send me an email to tell me it is low.)

Originally I wrote a check for $45 (10 lunches each for 2 kids)

I pack about 2 or 3 days a week.. they buy lunch 2 or 3 days a week.. they buy pizza chicken nuggets... other lunch choices they do not like..

I send a packed lunch every day. My daughter is very picky and it's just easier for us this way.

Her school offers lunch three days a week. The parents must pay in advance for it (with the monthly tuition) and send something on Tuesdays and Thursdays for their kids. If they don’t have lunch then the parents are called to bring something.

I volunteer at the school and have never heard anyone complain and there have never been children with nothing. I do notice that most kids don’t eat lunch (no matter the age). They are too busy socializing and most throw away even home brought lunches. This is why they are so hungry after school.
It is a private school but they do have some children there on scholarship (state paid).

I almost always sent lunch, because it was too expensive to buy lunch at school for three kids. I let them buy it occasionally as a treat. Thank you, peanut butter!

My son is in 5th grade, old enough to budget, make choices, and face consequences. His school allows the lunch account to overdraft. Drives me Bonkers! I give him a set amount every month, it's enough to cover the 1-2 times a week he buys, plus some. I have a low funds alert on the account, I Know when it's low and Purposely don't refill it because I don't want to reward him for tossing his lunch from home to buy chicken rings. I WANT them to tell him, sorry, you can't buy that. But they don't, they just let the account go negative then send me nasty grams. So I am canceling his lunch account and going to cash only. If they choose to let him get something with no cash that's their problem, not mine.

I usually have an amount in the lunch account. I think the school lunches expensive ($4 a day) considering I know my kindergartener does not eat them and he needs a snack from home for the 10am snack break. If i have to put a snack in his bag, i might as well put a few more items to make it a lunch. There might be O. meal a week (pizza Friday) that i think he will eat from the school.

The school has a recorded robo call message if you run out of money and it does not stop (several times a day) until you put money in the account. I could link it to my ATM, but i noticed there is a charge to do that, so i would rather give $50 (or what ever you choose) to the front office and wait for the robo call. At his age I text or email the teacher in the morning requesting a lunch so she can mark her sheet. I am not sure if the older kids get to decide if they are going to order lunch or bring it from home.

It's all done online. We have a credit card tied to it, there is a minimum balance alert. It refills in an amount we chose, we get a text when it does. No worries. Ain't nobody got time for that.

We never did the account thing because I think my kids would buy more than they were supposed to. So when they bought school lunch, I gave them the exact amount every day in a baggie.

Now I make their lunch and I think they like it better. They are 17, 13 and 10.

Son has an account for lunch. I send in money to be put in. I find it in his pockets and send it again. He comes home hungry because nothing is in his account. I give him money again, he comes home and complains about how the lunches at school are gross. He then says he buys lunch and does not eat it. I get a call he owes money....I send him in with money. He comes home hungry. LOL He will not take lunch. He has been denied lunch, he will live till he gets home. I clean out his pockets and a five drops out. What's a mom to do! lol !!

I can also put in a certain amount online. BUT I find my son is generous with my money and buys his friends cookies, chips, lunches. he only gets no more than 2.50 per day now.

I usually space his lunch account until they send me a letter that he's in the " negative" . He's only had to eat a cheese sandwich once ( what's provided , if you're overly delinquent). I felt horrible. It hasn't been a problem , this year. He's decided , he prefers taking his lunch.

Every month, we got a school lunch calendar. We hung it on the refrigerator.

Usually, my kids preferred taking lunches from home, but every now and then they'd have something at school that they really liked. In the beginning of the year, I'd start off with $20 on the accounts. Sometimes I'd get a chance to call the school and check the amount left on the account, but as a single full-time working mom, I didn't always remember to do that or have time while I was at work. If they went over, they were served exactly the same lunch as everyone else and a note was sent home from the office reminding me it was time to put more money on the account. They had a check the next day.

When I broke my right leg, I was put on disability so my income really changed. I had to go through the hoops with the doctor and the paperwork and it took some time before I began receiving money. I also couldn't drive so I had to rely on others to get my groceries or take me to the store.
I immediately notified the manager of food services to let her know all of this.
She told me not to worry about it and that she would NEVER let my son go hungry. When my checks came in, I cleared my account as I'd promised because I'm a woman of my word.

She is such a wonderful woman that knowing our situation, she surprised us with a Thanksgiving "basket" that was full of absolutely everything you could possibly imagine necessary to make a lovely Thanksgiving dinner.
What a blessing!!
My heart just melts at the thought of someone being kind enough to do that for us.

My children were never denied food at school, but I also never ignored the fact that it was time to put more money on the books. Like I said, they didn't eat school lunch all the time anyway. I made enough at dinner for them to have leftovers like bbq chicken, herb and butter wild rice, grilled vegetables, pasta, vegetable, sourdough bread and fruit....
School lunches can't compare with that.

My son is a senior in high school now. He can go off campus and get something to eat or he can bring lunch from home, however, he says the school serves killer salads and some days, he prefers to just have that.
I no longer do lunch accounts at school. He keeps a few dollars in his wallet in case he wants a salad at school and pays as he goes.

Anyway, that's been my experience with the school lunch system. I've never had any problems.

I pack my daughter's lunch every day. (It's her job to make sure it's in her backpack every morning.) It's really more economical as we do not qualify for free or reduced school lunch. She gets plenty of dairy and calcium enriched food and drink at home; I'd rather her not drink the hormone-laden school milk anyway.

We pack our daughter's lunch every day. She says the school lunches are disgusting. :)

Since he has healthy dinners at home, we let him pick if he wants a hot lunch or a packed sandwich for lunch at school. We always try to pay beforehand. He spends, however 2 ays with his mother per week so we alternate payments. O. semester we pay and there's never a problem. The other semester is his mother responsibility which means it's never paid for. From what he tells us his mother doesn't want to prepare sandwiches so he gets only hot lunches and the bill grows. (Mind you, school lunches are dirt cheap at our school) Still, he was never refused hot lunch! . We're waiting for that day, we heard that then the child gets a pb sandwich only.

My son is in 1st grade & I pack his lunch on most days as we are a mostly Paleo household and I think the lunches do not include enough fruits & veggies. He does get to buy once or twice a week depending on what's on the menu. I don't keep money in the account at school but will send 1-2 days worth at a time. The reason I do this is that I don't want him buying any of the extras they offer like ice cream, cookies, etc.

I've never had them not serve him lunch if I forgot to send money or the account was too low.