Stealing and lying

[KAR79]

I have 3 children (14 12 10) and they keep helping themselves to food without asking. Might sound like nothing but when school lunches are planned it makes things so much harder but they do it over and over again knowing it's not acceptable . They do it both at my house and also their dad's.
What can I do? Completely at my wits end and so upset by the lying.

My teen never stops eating. Have they got food in to munch on that's separate from the packed lunches? Do you put all the things for the packed lunches together and tell them if they eat that it's not being replaced?

I had a drawer in the fridge that contained packed lunch items and plastic tub in the cupboard again with packed lunch items.

Those things weren't to be touched but the rest was fair game so when my DCs asked for a snack they didn't ever take from the packed lunch bits.

Could you try that? Then you still have packed lunch items.

My sons are 14 and 11 so devour a lot of food, there would be punishments if they took items from the packed lunches. The same with your children. They are old enough to understand why they shouldn't.