Page 5 - August 2025-26 Back to School flip

It’s More than Just Lunch!
Healthy and Nutritious
Watch your child when they are accomplishing "real work" in the kitchen at home. Whether carefully slicing apples
or arranging crackers topped with eggs on a tray, their face shines with purposeful concentration. You can provide support for such rewarding experiences daily when packing a Montessori-style lunch. Prepare lunches the evening before with your child. They'll relish the opportunity to undertake an essential role in caring for themselves in this way. Giving children a chance to choose from healthy options respects their food preferences and allows for their eagerness to participate in family life.
Healthy foods are a hallmark of the Montessori philosophy. Dr. Montessori was among the first educators to recognize the connection between nutrition and the developing brain. We request that you to pack healthy foods and avoid pre-packaged, high-salt, high-sugar foods. We especially require that you donʼt send candy, sodas, cupcakes, etc. There is no need to pack juice boxes or other sugary drinks as the children use their water bottles to drink cool, delicious water. Children never get enough!
Food for Thought
Pediatric feeding experts recommend avoiding squeeze pouches. Choose items that require lots of jaw action. Crunchy, sticky, slippery, whole foods are better for a childʼs development. Squeeze pouches oversimplify the eating process, leaving fewer opportunities for children to practice the oral and fine motor skills they need to eat more textured and varied foods, increasing picky eating. They also dilute the nutritional quality of food and may cause cavities due to added sugars. Pack a real apple instead of apple sauce in a squeeze pouch.
From a Montessori perspective, squeeze pouches delay social skills development and the use of utensils. Food requiring time and effort to eat offer more time for social interaction when they arenʼt slurping down their meal in five seconds!
Please Support Our Healthy Lunches Endeavor
We recognize that parents are busy, and some may not feel as strongly as we do about lunch items. You chose our school for the many wonderful things we teach your children. This is one of those things. Please support your teachers by planning lunches within our parameters. It causes stress between the children when some may bring goodies and others do not. Items not fitting within our parameters will be sent home with a note and a healthier item may replace it. Please see the Parent Handbook for more details.
Helpful Hints
Foster independence and limit frustration by packing food in containers your child can open by themselves. Limit microwavable items to one minute so that children do not have to wait long periods of time. Please, no pre-packaged items that require special preparation by the teacher. Ex: Ramen & Mac-n-Cheese. Due to possible severe allergic reactions, we are PEANUT FREE.