$96 worth of school lunches!

[wakeupcall]

My difficult child's school has a badge that everyone in the school must wear around their necks. It has a UPC bar code on it and a photo of him. At the cafeteria, it's swiped when you purchase food. I can only think that on Friday when he was "swiping" that there was SOMEONE who noticed that he had 4 minihotdogs, 2 chicken sandwiches, two fries, a power drink....to the tune of $14.25!!! BUT, of course, it's a way for them to make money, so why should they care? It's my fault for not watching more closely, but jeeeeeeez does this watching more closely ever end? I do NOT know how the others of you handle more than one difficult child....my goodness, there wouldn't be enough hours in the day to keep up!

 

[wakeupcall]

I also forgot to mention......there are a few days (earlier in the month) where there are charges to his mealpayplus account that are as far apart as 90 minutes!! He admits to buying a "friend" lunches in the last few days, but how on earth could there be charges as much as 90 minutes apart? I've already emailed the counselor to check into it. It makes me wonder about when he had to have his badge replaced some time ago because he chewed up the first one. Do you think someone got a hold of his old badge? Wouldn't they have destroyed the old one immediately?

 

[donna723]

I'm a bit surprised too that the school would allow them to do it. Do they have some kind of a card they show or just give their name to the cashier? If they had used that system in our schools back then, I can TOTALLY see my son doing that when he was that age! He's the original "soft touch", a little bit gullible, the one who feels sorry for everyone and would give them his last dollar and then do without himself! And more than a few have taken advantage of him.

He's 27 now and he STILL does it! He has a good job and makes decent money but he's turned into a little bit of a "target". He's always the one that people go to when they run a little short before payday, and at any given time there's a half dozen people who owe him money. Some pay him back, some don't, and there's times when he ends up running short himself because someone didn't pay him back. He is learning though, but he's always had a hard time saying "no".

 

[Marguerite]

I'm also wondering how 'friendly' the friends are. Could they be bullying him? Or in some other way profiting from him?

Another possibility - if he is only buying for himself, is he possibly doing what a lot of adults do and impulse-buying because he's hungry, and then finding he's not as hungry as he thought after all. I'd be curious about what gets thrown away.

Sometimes I'm glad for the Aussie system - a kid CAN buy lunch but it has to be pre-ordered as school starts or just before - the kid ordering lunch or the parents write the child's name and order on a paper bag, put the money in the paper bag, plus they write on the paper bad how much they're paying, the teacher sends a kid down to the canteen with the lunch orders, the canteen delivers the lunches just before lunchtime, the kids eat their lunch sitting in the playground with the other kids. Or the kids bring a lunch from home.
And whatever is left is often taken home for the compost heap or other recycling, which also gives parents some idea of how much their kid is eating (or not). It still won't tell you if your child is being bullied out of lunch or their lunch money. And I remember when easy child used to get her lunch stolen, another girl in the class never seemed to have any lunch and she would raid all the other kids' lunches. Because easy child had a better class of lunch due to her allergies, this kid targeted easy child. The teachers had their own stash of emergency replacement meals but these were not permitted on easy child's diet. So we did two things - we got easy child's lunch minded in the school office, and we also changed her menu to the more unusual foods she liked, such as pickled octopus and black olives. And I think the school also had a stern talk to the girl's parents about her habit of stealing food.

I hope you can sort this one out.

Marg

 

[susiestar]

He is still 12. NOT grown up yet. Give him some time and some consequences - spend your lunch $$ then pack or beg from friends or go hungry.

At out school they cannot give a child with-o $$ a different lunch than everyone else has - it is a violation of the federal free lunch program if they do that to ANYONE!

Heck, thank you can't even TAKE peanutbutter crackers (his preferred food) to school because there are 2 kids out of 500 who are allergic to peanut butter.

Our school would monitor this.Sorry!

 

[Sunlight]

wow a cellphone at age 12...lol I just got my first one at age 55 as a birthday gift.
hmmm
I think the bologna will make him see the light.

 

[whateveryousay2007]

My son's school does the same thing. they limit what/how much they can spend. For example they will only let him buy his lunch, no extras unless I okay it ahead of time.

I'd complain to the school.

 

[TerryJ2]

I also forgot to mention......there are a few days (earlier in the month) where there are charges to his mealpayplus account that are as far apart as 90 minutes!! He admits to buying a "friend" lunches in the last few days, but how on earth could there be charges as much as 90 minutes apart? I've already emailed the counselor to check into it. It makes me wonder about when he had to have his badge replaced some time ago because he chewed up the first one. Do you think someone got a hold of his old badge? Wouldn't they have destroyed the old one immediately?

For the moment, I would address the issues separately, although I can see where you're getting the idea.
I'm glad you emailed. I'm sure it will be resolved. And you're not the only parent with-that issue.
I've had a similar issue. It took me weeks to get it resolved, because just as soon as one teacher had it under control, difficult child would find someone else to take pity on him. He'd give away his lunch, or squish it into the bottom of his backpack, and then order something I didn't want him to have (cheese and wheat, which he's allergic to). A couple of teachers gave away their own lunches to him!!!
I handled the $ issue with-the office, the food issue with-several teachers, and the disciplinary issue with-difficult child--surely a multi-pronged approach!

At that point difficult child was 9 so he was not learning very quickly! I think that because yours is 12 he'll "get it" a lot sooner.

Good luck!

 

[stepmom47]

I know how you feel, difficult child was buying ice cream & little debbie snack cakes 3x per day for 6 weeks. Bio-mom was not aware till difficult child went through $40.00.

difficult child then told us that is was not him buying the ice cream and that someone else must be using his card... we had the print out and showed it too him. he still denies it to this day.

The middle school he attends could care less that he is in the cafeteria instead of class at that point, they just give him a tardy and move on.

difficult child has gotton to the point where he can make it to his locker and the cafeteria in that short amount of time between classes. :dance:

He now has to pack a lunch everyday, but I am sure he is trading it for junk food

 

[witzend]

Rather than fight the battle of lunches from home (M would eat uneaten cafeteria stuff from the garbage when we tried that!) I would consider giving him enough for the week each week. Either have the check ready Friday or Monday, and he gets nothing more and nothing less. It's up to him to keep track of it. He can probably handle that.

 

[Star*]

SOMEONE IS GOING TO BE RAKING A LOT OF :autumn: to work off $96.00 in lunches - ahhh just so he doesn't gain weight = right!

And if there were other kids who helped themselves to your dime? They'd be out there raking too!

I would ask the school for a print out and then ask them if they seriously thought difficult child could eat that much in one day and if they did then WHERE was the cafeteria monitor.

(don't throw a hammer) but maybe he needs a medications tweak? If he's eating that much it would be cheaper to pick him up every day and take him to a buffet.