Did you send your kids to school with lunch money every day?

Yes, mid 70’s in DC & I gave her the correct change every day!!!

When she or I didn’t make her lunch, I sent her off with lunch money. Often I sent her off with extra lunches so some of her less fortunate friends would have lunch without having to make it obvious they couldn’t have lunch otherwise.
This was in the first decade of this millennium.

My daughter goes to school now (she’s in middle school now) and it was always that you sent a check or cash in and they put it on the account, or you can load the account via credit card.

It wasn’t a thing around here when I was in grade school (from ‘96 to ‘09). My parents packed my lunch every day, and sometimes I would pick up food there (in middle school), but it was prepaid. Some of the schools I went to didn’t even have a cafeteria, at least not the kind that you think of.

Daily lunch money was a thing up until I graduated from high school in 1995.

We had pre-purchased vouchers to turn in at the cantina.

My kids took their lunch to school through fifth grade. Then in middle school, the Parent’s club had a meal delivery that you ordered ahead at the beginning of each month. One could not rely on buying a lunch if one forgot to order it. Kids who forgot to bring a lunch and did not have one on order would get fed and then billed.

When I was in intermediate and high school, I got $5 per week allowance, and I had to cover my lunches and any snacks with that. If i only spent $2.50 in a week, I got to keep the balance. If I bought a record album or a comic book, I might end up going hungry for a day or two.

I sent my child with lunch money on the rare occasion that I did not pack his lunch (graduated in 2014) until the district qualified for a state grant that enabled them to provide lunch to all students at no cost due to the very high proportion of students that qualified for free or reduced price lunch.

I am a big fan of such programs.

I have little ones currently in elementary school. They have food sensitivities, so I have to send all of their food in to school. But I don’t believe that the school accepts cash (different school district than my oldest).

When I was a child in the early 70’s living in NY I brought my lunch, there wasn’t a cafeteria. I did bring money to my first grade teacher to put in my bank account. I don’t remember if I did that in grades after first grade.

We moved to Maryland when I was going into 5th grade in the late 70’s, and that school had school lunch, and my mom was thrilled. She quickly coughed up the change for lunch every day so she didn’t have to make lunch. We had to walk our lunch back to the classroom. Little children carrying their styrofoam trays through the halls to class.

In junior high there was a regular cafeteria with tables, and yes I brought money to buy lunch. I also sometimes bought a snack on the way home at the small mall that was near my school.

High school I also brought money. I ate at the cafeteria sometimes, and other times I left campus to go to McDonald’s or some other fast food type of place.

I can not remember how we did lunches when I was in elementary school. I remember Mom sending lunch to school with me in Jr. High and eating in the bleachers with my friends.
I quit eating lunch in HS.

@Dutchess_III: “They haven’t sent kids to school with daily lunch money since the 60s.”

@Dutchess_III: “I never paid daily and I was.a kid in HS in the 70s.”

@Dutchess_III: “I can not remember how we did lunches when I was in elementary school. I remember Mom sending lunch to school with me in Jr. High and eating in the bleachers with my friends.
I quit eating lunch in HS.”

I would prepay monthly. As a kid myself, I had to take money daily for lunch in High School and college.

I just talked to my kids. They don’t remember if they got free lunches.

My kids either brought brown bag lunch or took lunch money daily. This was in the 80s and 90s.

Things are just different in different parts of the country free lunch is handled differently. It is clearly an issue now in some districts. What makes this simple fact so hard to understand?

The only way my kids were stigmatized was because they didn’t have name brand, popular clothes.
I asked why they didn’t say something to me. They said because they knew there was nothing I could do about it. That really makes me sad.

If they were in a district that caused them to be singled out for being poor I’d be tracking down the superindendant and school board to get it changed.
Failing that I’d send lunch to school with them.
I guess we were lucky to live in a district that wasn’t run by assholes.

@Dutchess_III: “I just talked to my kids. They don’t remember if they got free lunches.”

I call bullshit.

How would they know? It didn’t occur to me to tell them.

No way were we exposing them to the crap the school passed off as food, they were given packed lunches.

Yes. I had enough to have a liter of milk and a hoagie. Or a pop and a Mr. noodles in a Styrofoam cup with hot water.

That’s a lot of milk!!