Snacktime Politics
I want to know: How does your kindergarten handle snack?
Remember when snack was some animal cookies and apple juice? Well, not anymore. Between the food police and allergies snack has become one of the hottest topics in mommyville.
It seems that the School Board does not outline a universal snack policy so it is up to schools and teachers to choose how they manage snack. This results in a patchwork of policies different in each school and sometimes in each class.
In my daughter’s class one parent takes on making snack for the whole class for the week. The parent is reponsible for bringing in cut-up fruit and/or vegetables each day for the 20 kids. They eat it together at circle time and the child of the snack-preparer gets the special job of handing it out to the other kids. It is a drag when it is your week but you can't fight it. (You don't need to ask, of course I forgot the first day when it was my turn). My current teacher is fairly relaxed and since there are no kids with allergies in her class she is open to home-baked treats, cheese and dips such as hummous.
But as easy as she makes it, it is still a lot to ask of a parent to shop, and prepare snack for 20 kids. Last year, a parent tried to put a competitive edge on it by cutting out everything with fancy cookie cutters, but the majority of days the kids are eating baby carrots and sliced banana.
Meanwhile, my good friend was aghast at the idea of providing snack for an entire class. At her school each kid brings their own snack and can eat it at the snack table when they want to. But her school made a rule that kids could only bring in fruit and vegetables – no carbs at all even from allergy-free sources because there is a student allergic to nuts, dairy and eggs. I’m lucky, I don’t have an allergy kid but mandating the entire class’ personal snack seems like overkill. What do you think? How does your school handle the all-important snack?
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