JHB, I like your banana snack, bananas rock, so high in potassium and so calming, excellent choice.
Ever tried freezing them? Peel first, then stick in plastic bags and freeze, they come out just like ice cream! You could even make them special with a popsickle stick stuck in them.
Bertha, I love your student/parent participation snack day too! My youngest is in middle school now, so it might be harder to convince the powers that be to spend time on this, but it's worth a try. Kids do love food, I've always encouraged my sons to help in the kitchen and they love cooking! More food education, especially hands on food preparation, is needed in the schools to help fight the fat epidemic.
The cheaper/low effort snacks do seem to be the boxes of cookies and such when it's our turn to send snack for the whole class.
But one of the easiest things I've found on the healthy side is bananas. I pick out good size ones and plan 1 banana per 2 kids since it's just a snack. They can be cut in half with sturdy plastic (disposable) knives, so I send 2 or 3 of those along with napkins. Quick, popular, and not really very expensive.
Farmer Mom, does your school do any healthy snack or healthy breakfast days?
Our school, on half days, alternates between healthy snack & healthy breakfast days.
The teachers send home a list(provided by the school nurse). Every student has an assigned item to bring in, the classmoms go in to prepare the foods and the kids get to enjoy a healthy breakfast or snack.
The parents love it as well as the kids. They get to try items they never tried before. The teachers plan a lesson around it teaching the kids good foods vs. bad foods.
Excellent! You are so right - kids love carrots, snap peas, etc. (and yoghurt for dip) but it's easier to just buy a box of cookies than to wash and cut up a platter of fruits and veggies. Good for you for taking the time. That's great the teacher was open to the suggestion and didn't get defensive.
A note was sent home with my student requesting that I provide snacks for his class. The note had snack suggestions including: donuts, cake, cookies, pies, pastries, etc. I took in 2 ripe watermelons, some freshly blanched edamame (green soybeans) and some cherry tomatoes all just picked out of the garden.
The kids loved the food! I also slipped the teacher a graph of the ballooning child statistics, and a note suggesting he remove donuts from his snack request form. The teacher just phoned to thank me for the food and to say he has rewritten the snack request letter, ommitting donuts and emphasizing that parents should consider bringing healthy snacks!
I feel so good about this! It worries me that almost 5% more a year of our school's students go from fit to fat. I think parents and schools should work together to address this problem, it's working here! Hooray!
