Are School Lunches Making Your Child Fat?

When my daughter's school first initiated online monitoring of her grades and assignments I was thrilled. Next came many teachers posting their lesson plans, study guides and other helpful tools for parents online. Then came the ability to purchase my daughter's lunch meal plan online. For this service, I register a debit or credit card with an online company named "MealPayPlus." I specify an amount to be charged to my account every so many weeks and her lunch money account is replenished automatically. No more worrying about if she has money in her account or not, did she take her money to school or if the money I deposited previously has already been used. A parent can also state exactly how much per day that their child may spend on snacks and lunch items, thus making sure that the money is used correctly and in the time allotted. This is great news for the budget conscious.

Meal pay programs (specifically MealPay) has been used by over 1000 school districts in 21 states as a service to assist parents in electronically prepaying for their student's lunches over the past several years. Students use either their student identification card to "swipe" it, similar to using a debit or credit card, or they may type in their student identification number on a numeric keypad and their lunch or snack items will be automatically charged to their account.

This prepay service is designed to perform a variety of functions for the school, the parents and the students. First, parents need not worry anymore about making sure to write the check or send lunch money with their child. Secondly, children won't be worrying about leaving their lunch money at home. Thirdly, there is no losing your lunch money. This program also removes some of the stigma that may be on children on the free or reduced lunch program, as this information is no longer common knowledge. No matter if you are purchasing your lunch or relying on a lunch program each student purchases their lunch the exact same way. It is also designed to provide additional time for students to eat their lunch as they will have less time in line since payments are expedited.

Our unused lunch box, because buying lunch is more COOL.

Credit: Lisa Carey

Copyright: Lisa Carey