Comments on: Winnona Park Elementary Cuts Back on Snacking

By: RR

RR — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:27:49 +0000

I understand that an empty lunchbox would please parents, but the flip side is that during the 5 hours between breakfast and lunch some children might be losing the ability to focus. I believe that education is far more important than an empty lunchbox. Could an earlier lunch time be a reasonable solution? If not, could the kids with the latest lunch time be allowed a snack? Just a thought.

By: CSD Mom

CSD Mom — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:28:18 +0000

Yes, the problem with having parents bring in the snack is that kids got pudding cups, boxes of Nilla wafers, packages of cookies, unhealthy “granola bars,” gogurts, etc. None of this is healthy and contains really icky stuff that i don’t normally let my kids eat. I’d rather see no snack at all then see the kids rely on these items for their nourishment.

Trust me people, the kids will eat all their lunch if they’re hungry enough. My own kid is a VERY slow eater–she is always the last to finish her dinner even though she often starts first. The fact that she’s bringing home an empty lunchbox everyday tells me the no-snack rule is working exactly as intended.

By: Another Rick

Another Rick — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:01:35 +0000

In my case, having raised three children, both parents had to work outside the home (which is the norm, outside Decatur apparently) we barely had time to prepare a healthy dinner, let alone snacks. I am all for the no snacks change, but please let them have more time to socialize and learn outside the classroom, like at lunch. I had a great education professor at Emory who taught me that more then half our learning happens outside the classroom.

By: "Naaman" Gibbets

"Naaman" Gibbets — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:20:14 +0000

I am willing to bet that after five hours (what time do your kids eat breakfast?) between meals with no snack the kids will eat their lunch in thirty minutes. Which is plenty of time–how slow can you eat? or is it a matter of trying to consume too much? or chatting…?
I have disliked the snackmosphere at Winnona for years and I for one think it’s a great idea and kudos to Greg and staff for implementing it.

By: karass

karass — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:16:45 +0000

Oh, don’t worry. None of the kids ever had to worry about bringing snacks! This was a “volunteer” parent duty, as in you better “volunteer” to bring in two weeks of snacks per child per year if you don’t want the Slackard Parent of the Year Award! And most everyone brought in more than their share of non-perishable snacks just in case some other families forgot or couldn’t do it or you yourself forgot later in the year and were consumed with guilt.

Isn’t it interesting that snacks are a recent cultural phenomenon in CSD but we all rotate quickly through the schools and so we just accepted it as gospel. Some Martha Stewart parent must have arrived in ~2004 and guilt-tripped us into the snack ritual……

(By the way, I actually think that a truly healthy morning or afternoon snack makes educational and physical sense for kids, but something truly healthy like carrot sticks or apple slices. How to structure it so it’s a healthy, short, not messy, equitable mini-meal is the question. It might not be feasible. It certainly won’t happen easily through an unstructured volunteer list. Isn’t there a way that the snack could be part of a purchased or free lunch, just delivered earlier or later? And buyable as an individual unit for lunch bringers who forget their snack, like milk is?)