There are all these random odd things about my kids' school that probably aren't odd, I just don't understand them. My latest is school lunches. Buying lunch was never an option in my 12 years of Catholic schooling. The school I went to for the first 8 years didn't have a lunch room let alone a cafeteria. You brought your lunch and you ate at your desk. The high school had a lunch room and a cafeteria that served breakfast to people who qualified for free breakfast, but no lunch. The school was in the middle of town though and you were free to leave and go to the deli or McDonalds. (I'd like to see that happen today) So I have zero experience with cafeterias.
Lunch is $1.70. Havoc buys lunch on random days if they are serving something he likes - tacos, chicken sandwiches or hot dogs usually. I can't just hand him $2 to stick in his pocket. I understand that. Trusting a bunch of 5 year olds not to lose their lunch money or their change would be foolish.
I have to put the money in a baggie or envelope, write his name, his teachers name and 'lunch money' on it, plus the amount. Ok, I assume this is in case the baggie falls out of his backpack. What I don't understand is why I can't get the baggie or envelope back. We have a huge change jar and don't ever have much cash on us. Havoc takes $1.70 exactly in loose change every time. So he never gets change back. Maybe if I gave him $1.75 he'd get the bag back with a nickel in it?
It's really a matter of waste management to me. I've sent in about 20 baggies since school started. 20 baggies with Havoc's name, the teacher's name and lunch money on it. What are they doing with them? Do they throw them out? Why can't they hand him back the empty bag? Though honestly I am not entirely sure he gives them the money himself. Possibly the teacher collects the baggies and hands them in when the class goes to lunch. But still, it has his name on it. How hard is it to hand them back?
I've been concerned about the baggie waste for awhile now. Are all these kids bags & envelopes ending up in the trash? Is my kid the only with a baggie? Why isn't there some way for me to send in $20 and have 18 lunches prepaid and save 18 wasted baggies? It seems I can only prepay if he is going to buy lunch every single day, not at random, like he does. The next county over uses prepaid cards the kids swipe. Parents can go online and add money to it with a visa. So this morning, just to see what happened, DH wrote "Please return this bag" on the baggie.
Here the odd thing. We got a baggie back. It was Havoc's baggie. But it WASN'T the one with "Please return this bag" written on it, it was a previous one. What, are they saving them up? Are their piles of baggies sitting around with kids names on them? Are they going to send them home at Xmas break to be used next year?
I want to send a note into the teacher asking about it, but I don't want to be 'that odd woman with the baggie hang up' either. I am going to have to call the school. There has got to be a way to pay ahead on the lunches eaten at random & that info just never reached me or I missed it.
