What a child brings to school for lunch indicates a lot about their life at home.

When I was younger I was always jealous of other kids whose lunches were comprised entirely of chips, candy, and soft drinks. At the time I was little and I wanted sweets as often as possible. However, my lunches were always filled with fruit, vegetables, and healthy sandwiches. If I was lucky, my parents would pack me fruit snacks.

It wasn’t until much later when I worked as a camp counselor at a day camp that I began to notice yet again what children brought for lunch. Most campers had lunches similar to what I grew up with, however, I observed that one camper had a lunch consisting solely of Cheetos and fruit snacks, nothing healthy. He brought these same foods almost every day. I found it odd that his parents never packed him anything with more nutritional value.

During pick-up, I would walk my campers to their parent's cars. Most parents would exclaim, “how was your day,” when picking up their children. Unfortunately, this camper’s parents would ignore him, not even looking over when he got into the car. Later in the summer, I learned that his family was going through a lot of problems at home.

At this point, I realized how lucky I was that my parents packed me healthy lunches when I was young. It wasn’t because they wanted to deprive me of sweets, rather, my parents wanted to make sure I was staying healthy because they loved and cared about me. I learned that something as small as what a child brings for lunch each day indicates a lot about their parents socioeconomic status or, in some unfortunate cases, whether there are problems in the child’s home life.