What times do you serve meals?

[spinnymarie]

Got it, thanks blackcat!

Right now I'm serving breakfast, snack, lunch and another snack, and I know that when I eventually switch to the food program that they will only reimburse for three of those. Just wondering how you all schedule eating times and if you only serve food three times, and if it's realistic to think I can skip one of those snacks
Right now we are doing (approx):
Breakfast 7:30
Snack 10:00
Lunch 12:00
Snack 3:00

[TickleMonster]

same times here

[Blackcat31]

I am assuming you wanted this to be a separate thread and not a reply in the other thread...

Anyways, I serve a large snack at 9:00

lunch around 11:30-12:00 and

afternoon snack at 3:00-3:30

I do NOT serve actual breakfast because most kids don't eat immediately upon waking or arriving.

It's easier for me to serve a large snack (that I can count as breakfast) once everyone is already here.

Plus, you are right about the FP only allowing you to claim 3 of the 4 meals/snacks you serve.

You can however still use the 4th snack/meal as a deduction on your taxes.

[spinnymarie]

Thanks, I'm having some real issues this morning!

[daycarediva]

Breakfast 8am
Lunch 11:30
Snack. 2:30-3:00 (depending on when they wake from nap)

[CraftyMom]

My meal schedule is the same as Blackcat.

I used to do breakfast at 8:00. However since I find that EVERY one of my dck's eats at home before coming I changed it. It was hectic (for me) to get breakfast together since I'm getting my own kids dressed and off to school. When I realized I was doing it for nothing because they all ate already I switched to a large snack later when things were more calm.

Do what works for you, adjust your times if you need to.

I also find that if they have a snack too close to lunch then they don't eat much lunch since they aren't as hungry.

[TwinKristi]

Breakfast is at 7:30am with my kids before school, but if someone arrives by 8:30 I will still serve them breakfast. I only "record" in the FP one DCG for AM snack because she leaves by 2, but everyone gets a little snack around 9:30-10am. Then we do an early lunch at 11:30 and snack when the big kids get home from school between 2-3pm depending on the day. They get out at 1:30 on Wed and 2:45 the rest of the week. Occasionally I will serve everyone "dinner" if I have kids here til 5:30 but it's not really our dinner, just a late snack that fits in the dinner category for the FP.

B-7:30
AM-9:30
L-11:30
PM-3
D-5:30

[Kabob]

I am assuming you wanted this to be a separate thread and not a reply in the other thread...

Anyways, I serve a large snack at 9:00

lunch around 11:30-12:00 and

afternoon snack at 3:00-3:30

I do NOT serve actual breakfast because most kids don't eat immediately upon waking or arriving.

It's easier for me to serve a large snack (that I can count as breakfast) once everyone is already here.

Plus, you are right about the FP only allowing you to claim 3 of the 4 meals/snacks you serve.

You can however still use the 4th snack/meal as a deduction on your taxes.

I want to switch to this since all the toddlers eat before they get here but the older kids are hit or miss. Either way most of them don't eat much and I feel like I'm interrupting our day every 2 hours for meals...

How would one go about communicating this change to the parents? I'm not sure they would like the change on days they want to be lazy about meals...

[jenboo]

Got it, thanks blackcat!

Right now I'm serving breakfast, snack, lunch and another snack, and I know that when I eventually switch to the food program that they will only reimburse for three of those. Just wondering how you all schedule eating times and if you only serve food three times, and if it's realistic to think I can skip one of those snacks
Right now we are doing (approx):
Breakfast 7:30
Snack 10:00
Lunch 12:00
Snack 3:00

I serve:
Breakfast 8:15
AM snack: 10:15
Lunch: 12:15
PM Snack: 3:30

If any child arrives before 8:15, they have not eaten that morning yet. I don't claim my AM Snack on the food program... They DCKs need all of these meals//snacks so I just tough it out. They can't make it to lunch without that AM snack.

[mema]

I use to serve
B-745
S-930
Lunch-12
S-3

No one ate lunch. So now it's
B-8
L-1130
S-3

[NeedaVaca]

I serve snack at 9:30, lunch at 11:30, snack at 3:00

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

9:00 breakfast
12:00 lunch
3:00 pm snack

I am on the food program. They are supposed to eat before arrival and I know many do, if not all. It is why I pushed back the times originally.

[Blackcat31]

I want to switch to this since all the toddlers eat before they get here but the older kids are hit or miss. Either way most of them don't eat much and I feel like I'm interrupting our day every 2 hours for meals...

How would one go about communicating this change to the parents? I'm not sure they would like the change on days they want to be lazy about meals...

I just told my parents that I am serving a LARGE snack at 9:00 and if they felt their child needed to eat before then, they needed to feed them BEFORE arrival.

Serving breakfast WHILE tending to parents arriving and dropping off was too much chaos. I also had kids that arrived right as breakfast was getting over that would want to eat and if I served them, then my earliest arrivals that had arrived much earlier would want to eat again.... Ugh! It just got to be too hard.

Now I just tell my parents that my 9:00 snack DOES meet the food program requirements as a breakfast but it would not be served until 9:00 a.m. so that everyone was already here and I could give the kids my undivided attention during this time.

NO parent had issues with it at all.

[Heidi]

I am assuming you wanted this to be a separate thread and not a reply in the other thread...

Anyways, I serve a large snack at 9:00

lunch around 11:30-12:00 and

afternoon snack at 3:00-3:30

I do NOT serve actual breakfast because most kids don't eat immediately upon waking or arriving.

It's easier for me to serve a large snack (that I can count as breakfast) once everyone is already here.

Plus, you are right about the FP only allowing you to claim 3 of the 4 meals/snacks you serve.

You can however still use the 4th snack/meal as a deduction on your taxes.

roughly the same here, except I serve Breakfast/Lunch/Snack and claim AM Snack/Lunch/Dinner.

I used to serve 4 meals, but then I threw away a lot of lunches

[GKJNIGMN]

I used to serve breakfast, morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack.

I skip morning snack now. I serve breakfast at 7:30AM, Lunch at 11:30AM and PM snack at 3:30PM.

We usually spend the morning going for a walk or at the park anyway so none of the kids have noticed. Occasionally I will serve the morning snack and then I just deduct it on my taxes.