November 13th, 2007 by Jennine

If my children ate school lunches every day it would cost around $266 per month. This wouldn’t be horrible if I knew they were receiving wonderful nutrition, however,  I’ve been in the school kitchen. I did my fair share of serving the processed food like chicken nuggets with more breading than chicken, or ravioli from a ten pound can.  I adore the school cooks. I just think what they serve has less nutrition than what feeds the bacteria in the petri dishes at our local health clinic. So I made it my mission to send my children with homemade lunches this year.

It certainly does complicate my mornings. It takes greater coordination than I was born with to stir oatmeal while trying to funnel steaming hot chili into a thermos at the same time. Try flipping pancakes while you’re counting out equal portions of apple slices! It’s like patting your head while rubbing your tummy. Heaven forbid one child receives 5 slices and the other only 4.  And I’m sorry but garlicky chicken noodle soup smells horrible at 6 AM.

The other issue I have is controlling the containers. Last night I found a Gladware container from a few weeks ago in Isaiah’s backpack. Talk about a petri dish! Rice pudding doesn’t look the same after being at room temperature for 20 days. Reminders, threats and warnings are useless when it comes to taking ownership of lunchware so I’ve taken to writing each child’s name on both the containers and the lids in effort to find out who isn’t being responsible. And yes, you probably guessed it. That means I’m trying to match the correct lids and bowls every single morning. I still have no idea who isn’t placing their dirty dishes in the sink each day. Perhaps I should implement the Dewey Decimal System and have them check out their utensils each day.

Who am I kidding? I’ve had enough late fines at the library to fund several months of school lunches.

I don’t know. I sure like the idea of making my children nutritious, “made-with-love” meals each day. The reality, however, bites.