“I’m of a mind that kids would all be better off to go back to brown bagging”
I make my kids lunches and I know for a fact that it is fresher, healthier and a lot tastier than anything they get at school. In Montgomery County, the same lunches provided to the schools are provided to the jail. I have sent in salads, homemade soups, sandwiches and homemade brownies or cookies. My kids have been told, “You are so lucky”. All it takes is some time and a bit of planning. No way my kid is going to eat the same junk given to prisoners. No way. Just a thought.
Sometimes I made my boys lunch and occasionally I let them buy. I always felt better about what I made, because like you I actually MADE it. Of course, back then, we rarely ate fast food, so most of their intake was real food anyway. When they went to Catholic school there was no school lunch program so they had to bring a brown bag. It was a BIG DEAL if I bought something to put in their lunch like store bought cookies because they were on sale or I had a coupon that I couldn’t say no to. ;)
I did the same thing with my 5 children all the way up through high school. I think I could count on one hand the number of times they had bought a school lunch. In fact, I have a daughter that lives at home that teaches at an elementary school and I still make her lunch. (ok, maybe that's going too far, but she leaves really early in the morning and is usually rushing to get to school).
Anyway, like you said, the other kids were always jealous of my kids' lunches. It's surprising how creative you can be with different lunch items.
One time, a neighbor suggested I let my kids make their own lunches as she does since they know what they're in the mood for that day. I broached the subject with my kids and they just looked at me and laughed.