Guerita’s preschool has a monthly roster for morning tea. There are 25 kids in the class so about once a month each child has to bring morning tea for the whole class.
When I first found out about this, I was a bit concerned. Firstly I was worried about providing food for 25 kids. It seemed like a big task, but it has turned out to be a lot easier than sending Guerita off with her own morning tea every day. Once a month there’s a flurry of activity in the morning but for the rest of the month I love that I only have to throw a juice box in her backpack and she’s ready to go.
The other thing that worried me about the roster though was that I might be required to cook some traditional Mexican dish – for a class full of Mexicans! Sure, they are only 3 and 4 year olds, but they’ve grown up on this food. I could just imagine them sitting there saying “Estos no son nachos!” (These aren’t nachos!). And there were some things on the roster I’d never even heard of and couldn’t translate. What is jicama anyway?
Thankfully the only “Mexican” thing I’ve had to make so far is guacamole, which I think was fine. I still hold my breath for a few seconds when I receive the next month’s roster, scanning to see what I’ll be required to provide. Phew! This month its yoghurt, or ham sandwiches, or fruit.
Here’s an example of our monthly roster:
On the whole the food they have is fairly balanced and healthy particularly where the roster is specific – eg Fruta de temporada (seasonal fruit) although there are also donuts, pastries and muesli (granola) bars on the roster. And Guerita has come home some days exclaiming “Mum, guess what we had for morning tea today? We had that colourful ring cereal that you don’t let me have at home. You know, fruity loopies!”.
**sigh**
That’s the downside of not having to feed your child morning tea every day – someone else is! I don’t know about you, but if my day on the roster had Cereal con Leche (Cereal with Milk) I wouldn’t be sending Fruit Loops along. Mind you I’d probably send All Bran which Guerita eats every day – but might not make her the most popular girl in the class!!
Some translations of the items on this month’s roster:
| Donas | Donuts |
| Zanahorias con dip | Carrots with dip |
| Salchicas con salsa china y limon | (Frankfurt) sausages with soy sauce and lime |
| Sandwiches de jamon | Ham sandwiches |
| Nachos con queso | Cheese Nachos |
| Quesadillas | tortillas with melted cheese (see a picture here) |
| Pepinos con sal y limon | Cucumbers with salt & lime (EVERYTHING here is served with lime, and often chilli sauce) |
| Pure de papas | Mashed Potato |
| Sopa de lentejas | Lentil Soup |
| Empanadas dulces o saladas | Sweet or savoury empanadas (stuffed pastries) |
| Elotitos con mantequillas | corn kernels with butter |
I think it’ll be a shock to the system when we go home and I have to start packing a lunch box every day for Guerita. And it’ll be lunch and morning tea since she’ll be going full days in pre-primary. I’m going to have get up earlier just to get ready!
What do Aussie kids take to school these days in their lunch boxes? I better start collecting ideas!!
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Yeah I have to say I love the morning tea roster here. We only have to provide fruit or vegie sticks once every 6 weeks or so. And she comes home for lunch each day so no packing lunch boxes for me – yippee! When you get home grab a woman’s weekly kids cookbook – they usually have heaps of lunch box ideas
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Interesting concept. I agree about the fact that other parents are providing food you might not choose to give your child. With all the food allergies here now, it’s unlikely you’d get stuff like morning tea rosters. Our preschool don’t even have pooled party lunches when they have a child with allergies enrolled.
As for packed lunches. Lots of places have gone to “healthy eating policies” now. I send a sandwich, 1-2 pieces of fruit, yoghurt, sultanas and other dried fruit, biscuits and cheese dip. Generally our kids have sandwich + fruit + healthy snack + non healthy snack (cake, biscuits etc). Sadly, prepackaged stuff is getting more and more common and it’s hard to fight against as my kids always want what their friends have (which is often expensive, a waste of money and a waste of packaging in my opinion).
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Well at the start of the week after I’ve done a big shop…
A sandwich or roll (honey or salad with sliced chicken or turkey), a juice box, a piece of fruit, some dried fruit or a muesli bar or rice crackers.
At the end of the week when stocks are getting low… I’m begged for canteen money.
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I don`t know what kids take to school in Australia but here in Japan the kids at my kindy have to bring lunches and they usually have onigiri (rice balls) or rice with seaweed or flavouring on top, some kind of meat or fish dish and two types of vegetables…usually brocolli, mini tomatos or daikon…..Sometimes it is a mixed vegie dish. Then they will have fruit for dessert…if they have dessert and they will have water or tea in their drink bottles….
While packed food seems to be the norm for snacks here, lunches are quite healthy! Even the foreign kids have healthy lunches which is nice to see. The american/argentian girl usually has lentils and rice, fried rice chocked with vegies or a tomato pasta plus fruit for dessert!
I think lunches in Australia haven`t changed much since I was a kid. I usually got a juice box, a sandwich or roll, one or two peices of fruit and a yogurt or sweet!
Do either of your girls have allergies? At the moment nobody in my preschool class has allergies so we sometimes give iceblocks or fruit to the kids but if a child in the class has allergies we don`t give anything and we have to limit cooking! It is a shame but definitely not worth doing if one child has allergies
A lot of public schools here provide lunch!
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Thanks for all the lunchbox suggestions! I hadn’t even thought about the allergy question since my girls don’t have any. That would be quite hard to deal with I imagine.
I think I’m going to find it hard letting go of lunch time control – I can guarantee Guerita will eat any sweet treat I put in her lunchbox before anything else and who knows if she’ll finish the rest!
I pack as much as I can of the non perishables the night before, to try and ease some of the morning rush of doing it for 4. (I make morning tea snack boxes for the non school children to eat on the walk on the back from taking the kids to school.) I tend to bake 1 -2 times a week so the kids can have something of a treat (but without all the preservatives and stuff) in it, like cookies, muffins, homemade muesli bars etc.
I have also started making my own “trail mix” which the kids are enjoying. It is a combination of dried apricots or strawberries, sunflower seeds, almonds (no nut allergies in our house thankfully) and sultanas. I will also put in dry cereal like mini wheats or weet bix crunch and they love that too.
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I have to say that lunch week is a nightmare around here – we have to provide it once every 19 weeks or so but all 5 days for 20 children. I agree that the one good thing is that I know I am providing more healthy food than what Asha sometimes gets in school – or I shold say, what she sometimes eats. They get a small meal and then a a dessert every single day – some days as innocuous as fruit w/ yogurt but often gelatin and donuts and cakes. Of course Asha being the picky eater she is ignores the meal and goes straight for the dessert! But even so, I do like that the parents food is a lot healthier than what I found schools around here provide (a few schools we looked at where they provided meals offered things such as chocolate milk and kool aid and other sugary drinks and food – things asha has never had at home and would never miss until she had a taste). But I have to admit that I love not having to worry about packing a lunch for her each day – it is hard enough getting out the door w/ breakfast in our tummies each morning . . . .
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