School asking kids to bring in packed lunch

[KurriKawari]

DD12 is back at school in September. Only food on offer will be a "grab bag" of something hot like a panini, drink and cookie. They've suggested kids bring in own lunch to avoid cross contamination and queuing. I'm not keen on a cookie every day so thinking of sending her in with own lunch box. Any interesting ideas apart from sandwich/wrap, yoghurt and fruit? Thanks.

@OverTheRainbow88 - yep, it's got to be yet another thing added to our evening jobs list. FFS.

If you make sandwiches, freeze them overnight so they will still be cool by lunchtime.

If you make sandwiches, freeze them overnight so they will still be cool by lunchtime.

Yes it all feels quite never ending jobs at the moment!

This just popped up on Amazon-I recommended them Upthread, and today the duck egg is on offer; it’s clearly a considered purchase still but they are well worth it; last forever and keep food warm past lunchtime.

@Nat6999

If you make sandwiches, freeze them overnight so they will still be cool by lunchtime.

This is genius!

@Ragwort

I think you have to be realistic about what DC will eat in front of their peers, creative lunch boxes sound lovely but I know when I suggested anything a 'bit different' to my DS he wasn't keen and had a ham roll and banana for nearly every packed lunch during his school career - fortunately he is a lot more creative now he is a Uni student and doing his own catering.

The downside to this is that children from non-UK English backgrounds, who bring delicious, home-made food from their own culture, are often made to feel like an outsider.

One of the Thai children in DS’s class at school would bring in leftover food from home when she first started at the school. But the time she left she was eating the same crap the other children were eating, just so she could fit in better .

DD has been doing her own packed lunch since she was 9

Oh I love a MN competitive lunch box thread

@CakeMiddleton

My 18 month old makes his own packed lunch and dinner!

I hope he makes everything from scratch with organic, locally sourced produce, @OverTheRainbow88

Of course, he toddles to our allotment and picks the home grown ingredients needed for his lunch. He also makes a lunch for his 4 year old brother, but they like different things so has to make 2 options.

Slice of quiche.
Slice of gala pie.
Pork pie.
Cocktail sausages.
Pasta salad.

I would check the school packed lunch policy before buying a Thermos as many have a "no hot food/drinks" policy for packed lunches.

I have one DC who eats a limited diet so takes a chocolate spread sandwich (one slice of bread, folded over), five cucumber slices (he only eats four but five must be sent or the whole thing is ruined), a small pot of plain cooked chicken (diced), a stunt apple (never eaten, lovingly carried back and forth).

My other DC take the usual sandwiches and wraps. Other things they take are sushi which I buy ready made because my time is too precious to make my own, veggie sticks and dip, pasta salad (although one won't eat pasta so just takes salad), chicken wraps (chicken, cherry tomatoes, and cucumber with a wrap for them to make their own), berry skewers (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries threaded onto a Pocky/Mikado stick).

I'll be glad when dinners are reinstated and I can pay someone to take care of lunches on my behalf!

My DS takes a bento box with a little thermal nested in it. He usually has sushi, miso tofu soup or leftovers and he’s obsessed with edamame with different flavours.

The most Mumsnet post in the whole thread ^^

I knew my parenting had reached peak MN levels when then-2yo DD lay down outside Yo Sushi while screaming for "chick craggy!" (chicken keraage).

Cheese and crackers went down well,
Sausage rolls
Wraps
Cucumber and carrot sticks
Cooked chicken

Loads of little cakes and things in the shops

Ham sandwich
Crisps
Biscuit

Mumsnet packed lunches are unlike any I've ever seen!

I've got no good suggestions but when I was at school of you had anything even slightly unusual you would be completly ridiculed so maybe just ask your child of they have any suggestions based on what the other children bring in? Also no tuma, or egg or anything with any strong smell! Also dairylea lunchables were the coolest lunch. I just had a cheese and marmite sandwich every day for my whole school life.

DD and DS2 both like the "spicy chicken pasta" pot from Sainsbury's (usually part of a meal deal). I'm not suggesting you buy these but something like that from home could work.

Stunt apple

Pp mentioned the lunch box smelling of banana.
I wouldn't eat my sandwich at school if a banana was put in. It does taint the bread and make it smell. I can only eat green bananas as they have no smell. Won't have banana milkshake and it made me gip when ds had some banana smelling medicine (not envy)

You can buy packets of large sheets of paper to wrap sandwiches/wraps in on Amazon. Like they have in Delis. If you are not allowed to use washable lunch boxes. Better than cling film/kitchen roll.