Most schools have a computerized school lunch payment system.  Parents pay in advance and a balance is kept.  Very few children take lunch money to school. In this area the child's ID that they wear around their neck is swiped into the computer at the register. If you get assisted lunch it will come up or if there is money in the child's account it will come up. You can go on line and pay it just like any other bill. Parents of children who bring their lunch are told to keep a small amount of money in an account in case the child ends up with out it. The suburban schools that don't make the kids wear their ID's keep them in a file and pull them to swipe into the system when the child is in line for lunch.

The schools here do not have kitchens. Frozen dinners are delivered to the schools from a private food service and contract employees warm the meals up in portable warming ovens. The food is low quality and as the kids get older there isn't enough to eat. I live in Kochastand and they love sticking it to the poor kids on assisted lunch and let their brother-in-law make money from the program.  They claim it is cost effective but I am sure it is not.  

There are rules about sharing and trading.  You cannot put a piece of candy in their lunches or canned soda.  They don't want anything that will spill so little fruit cups that are not in jello is discouraged.  They want you to use only juice packs that have straws or small bottled water.  They will actually take it away from the child and send a note home. 

I feed the kids breakfast before they leave the house even though they have free  breakfast and lunch. If they want to eat at school again when they get there they can.  I do this to make sure they have enough to eat to start the day.  There are days that lunch is so bad that they beg to take lunch.  I have never seen it this bad.  My own children were in school when I moved to Florida.  My oldest grand son who is an adult says they had better lunches then what is now being served and he was also on free lunch. 

You cannot send in home made cookies or cupcakes for parties. We are told they have to come to school in sealed bakery boxes.  I fake it. I go to Michaels' Crafts and buy bakery boxes.  My cup cakes are just as pretty as bakery ones.  I stick a white name tag on it to seal it and write a price with a magic marker on the box. It cost $24 dollars to buy the class room cup cakes.  I do it for $6.  This is a poor community so the kids don't see cup cakes often at school.  This is a state law that JEB signed. 

All this has trickled down from the ruling class of the John Birch Society.