Kindergarten Snacks for the Class?

My son's preschool required us all to send in a $25 snack fee........wasn't too happy that I picked up my son yesterday and he had CHEESEBALLS as a snack....

Now, if I am going to give them $25, I feel it should be a little more nutritious than cheeseballs. How about a little substance, people!!

Anyhoo, I would consider the following snacks: applesauce, box of cherrios, Life cereal (any cereal that is nutritious would be good), craisins, fruit cups, goldfish, graham crackers, whole wheat crackers, those bunny organic snacks are good, etc.

Good luck!

If you know any other parents that feel the same way, it would make a stronger impression if you all talk to her together :)

Graham crackers and applesauce cups would work for that.

Honestly with all the food allergies, sensitivities, diabetes, etc I think parents should only be supplying for their child. My nephews pschool does a schedule for bringing snack for the class and I am just not a fan of that. What about people that can barely afford to feed their own kids? How are they going to supply a snack for 27 kids?

As for your question has your school banned peanuts? Any type of trail mix would be a good snack.

Ha! Fruit snacks are the same thing as candy IMO. I would rather my child eat a cookie made with flour, egg and real sugar than fruit snacks.
Anyhoo -
Save some money and go to Sams or Costco. They have boxes of individual Annies bunnies. Also look for individual graham cracker bunnies. You could also buy snack size baggies and fill them with a trail mix of sorts. Pretzels, raisins, chex cereal etc.. whatever you find. You could do this with a couple hundred baggies and then you could be done for the year ;)

I hate when you have to send the snacks for the whole class because in my experience, a lot of food gets wasted when the kids get something they may not like. It gets opened, tried, not liked, then thrown away. Waste of money and it should be that each family is responsible for packing their child their own snack daily - or send in 5 snacks on each Monday. I found that to make it less costly, I would buy a big bag of baby carrots or pretzels, then portion them out into snack size ziplocs. Those were the cheapest and non-sugary things that I have found. You can usually buy a big bag of carrots for under $2 and two bags of pretzels for about 3.50. The snack bags run about $2 if you buy the generic. Talk to your child's teacher and suggest having parents send in their kid's snacks for the week. It couldn't hurt! Good luck, I know it is so frustrating.

I shopped for ours last night. it was hard not knowing how many kids will be in his class yet. I bought 2 boxes of ritz crackers. There will be plenty to go around.They were on sale at Pick n Save 2/$5. I couldn't imagine doing that once every month! The teacher would probably love for parents to take in a homeade snack. Ask her if you can and she will probably be so glad. I used to help set out snack for the kindergardners and the other helper and i would talk about doing that. we thought freshly popped popcorn would be good. I was going to get crackers with peanut butter in them but someone may have a peanut allergy. You never know.

It shouldn't be that difficult to get families on a schedule. That's what my daughter's preschool did. It was much easier to send in healthy snacks when they didn't also have to be non-perishable. Maybe you could offer to organize it for the teacher.
For non-perishables, they do make fruit snacks made with 100% fruit, but they are expensive and still bad for teeth. Applesauce or fruit cups, snack bags with pretzels, pop corn, graham crackers, Goldfish, dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, blueberries) and/or trail mix are relatively inexpensive. Granola bars, packaged pudding or jello are more costly.
For perishables: mini muffins/breads, mini bagels, crackers and cheese, veggies, sliced fruit, yogurt tubes.
It shouldn't really cost more to feed the class since you don't have to send a single snack every day.
Good luck,
J.

Make sure there are no allergies first but my suggestions would be pretzels, cheerios of any flavor or buy a couple boxes to mix, popcorn, chex mix, Kix cereal, animal crackers, Gold fish…I agree fruit snacks is nothing but glorified candy. If they can’t have fresh stuff it is pretty limited. Can you ask the teacher for a specific day your snack will be eaten so you can bring a fresh item..if not cupboard items are the only thing that works.

Go Gurts in a cooler with ice packs on them?? Cheese cubes and crackers? Grapes? Pumpkin muffins, easy to make and very healthy. Yes, it does get costly. Mine are just out of that "snack at school" stage.

The graham crackers and applesauce question also led me to think about fruit cups. They are starting to package them in fruit juice rather than syrup and they last a shelf life. I agree w/other Mamas who said that it would make more sense to send snacks for your own child. I would hate that if I were you!!! That can get costly and as stated waste food. Good luck!

You most likely will have to buy something that is in the store container. Most schools don't allow homemade items anymore for health reasons. You may think your kitchen is clean but the next person who brings something from home may have mice that run across the counter-tops and eat off the food that they just brought to the school...gross but very true, i don't know of any schools or child care centers that are allowed to use foods that are not brought in sealed containers directly from the store.

I think the kids need to have the same snacks, I think it becomes a "see what I have" game and the kids just start having socio-economic differences pointed out long before needed.

I would talk with the school board. I wouldn't like other parents bringing snacks for my children, especially since we don't eat sugar or sugar substitutes! That's ridiculous...even by California standards! LOL

Sunflower seeds could be a good option, but the kids NEED to eat fresh snacks....that's all my kid eat. Nothing packaged.

We have the same policy at our school. I have brought it pretzels, animal crackers, cheese crackers, popcorn, fruit cups, apples sauce cups, string cheese (teacher has small fridge in room), trail mix, raisins, ritz bits, veggies, grapes, granola bars and some baked goods on my sons birthday.

We have to send our OWN child a packed snack everyday. This is in addition to a packed lunch if they do not eat in the cafeteria. The teacher's rule is no chips, cookies, candy or FRUIT SNACKS.

Could they change the policy? Or maybe get the ball rolling for a change next year.

I don't mind packing for my own child and it can be fresh everyday...strawberries, carrots, popcorn...etc. Although most days I send a protein bar that is high in protein and as low in sugar as I can find.

For your situation...a bag of small apples (whole unpeeled, kids sized), popcorn, pretzels, are graham crackers a cookie?, those little peel-able oranges, granola bars (low sugar ones,like kashi)...

Small bags of pretzel sticks, goldfish crackers, rice krispy treats, jar (or two) of salsa & chips? Maybe not the most nutritious...maybe if you take cheese, veggies, etc. they'll serve it THAT day?

ETA: small boxes of raisins? rice cakes? Ugh...this is a nightmare request! Brace yourself for MANY more!