What's In Your Kid's Lunch?

This year’s Sourcebook issue, now hitting subscribers’ mailboxes, is all about food. On page 196 we asked several area kids and teens about their midday meal. We learned that most area school systems don’t allow trading of food (too many kids with allergies these days) and that a lot of kids are hip to the unhealthiness of school lunch. What do your kids think?


Alyssa Provo
Age: 7 Grade: Second
School: Clover Hill Elementary

What does your lunchbox look like?
It’s black and gray and it matches my book bag and it’s from Target.
Who packs your lunch?
My mom packs my lunch usually, but my dad will pack it if my mom doesn’t feel like it.
What’s usually in your lunch?
A juice box, two snacks and a Lunchables or a sandwich.
Do you always carry the same thing to school everyday?
I switch it up.
What’s your favorite thing in your lunchbox?
Usually my Lunchables — hotdogs or chicken. I used to get nachos.
Do you trade anything from your lunch with the other kids?
No, I’m not allowed.
If you could pack anything you wanted, what would it be?
A brownie for snack, a juice box, and for food I might pack a peanut butter and fluff sandwich.

John Blackwell
Age: 18 Grade: Senior
School: Freeman High School

Who packs your lunch?
My dad.
What does he pack your lunch in?
A brown bag, but he does give my sister a plastic grocery bag.
What’s usually inside your lunch?
A sandwich and a couple of chips.
Do you augment your lunch with something purchased at school?
I usually pick up a Gatorade at school, and sometimes I’ll buy fries if I’m really hungry.
If you packed your own lunch, what would it contain?
Peanut butter and jelly, a bag of Doritos and maybe some cookies. I’m not much of an eater.
Why do you choose to bring your lunch instead of buying it?
We’ve only got 20 minutes to eat lunch … so it’s pretty tough to buy it and eat it. … And the food’s not that great.

Alex Sims
Age: 11 Grade: Fifth
School: William Fox Elementary

Who usually packs your lunch?
My stepmother, Lisa.
Do you carry your lunch in a lunchbox?
I used to do it in a lunchbox, but I actually lost it so she just puts it in a bag now. It was a purple [lunchbox] with a flower.
What’s inside your lunch?
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich, peaches or some kind of fruit, pudding and a little sweet. … I usually just go to the water fountain [for a drink].
If you could pack anything you wanted, what would it be?
Probably the same things because I’m used to it.

Kathleen McCarthy
Age: 16
Grade: Junior
School: Douglas S. Freeman High School

What's in your lunch?
I have the same thing every day: half a turkey or tuna sandwich, a Special K bar and sometimes Jell-O or mandarin oranges. We only have 20 minutes to eat. By the time you’ve bought your lunch you have five minutes to wolf down your pizza or your sub.
That's a healthy lunch. Is that on purpose?
I don't drink soda. I mean, I — I just choose not to. I pretty much drink water and milk. I'm not a health nut, but I'm conscious of what I eat.
We heard that you sometimes pack your brother's lunch.
Sometimes I'll make his sandwich .... because I'm nice like that.