Ordering School Lunch In

Are you tired of what the schools are serving your kids, haggling with school boards and school lunch service providers and vendors over nutritious meals, or just think parents and their kids should have a say in what they eat for lunch each day? Here's an idea from The Netherlands, courtesy of Springwise.

Packaged like a McDonald's Happy Meal, each [Lunch4Kids] lunchbox contains sandwiches, a drink (milk or juice), a piece of fruit and a snack (yoghurt, a cookie, a baby cucumber, etc).

Parents order online, specifying which foods their youngsters will leave untouched, and anything they're allergic to. The lunchboxes are delivered to participating schools every morning, and invoices are sent directly to parents. This keeps things simple for schools: nothing to administrate or refrigerate.

Besides the obvious advantages of balanced meals and healthy variety, there's also a high convenience aspect to Lunch4Kids. Parents don't have to worry about what to pack, or panic if they've run out of fresh bread or juice boxes. According to parents who participated in the trial-run, this alleviates morning stress and makes breakfast a time to enjoy with their families.

Update (4 August 2006): File under "You can't make this stuff up."

Under the new debt collection plan, hundreds of students whose parents owe the school system money from last year's lunches will get a cheese sandwich, milk and fruit instead of more popular choices such as corn dogs, lasagna roll-up or peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a side.

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