LOS ANGELES — For Rebecca Zeitlin, packing her 5-year-old son’s school lunch is always full of surprises. Offer him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at home and he won’t touch it. But pack it in his lunch with fruits, vegetables and a small treat and he’ll dive in.

He will “chow down” on applesauce at preschool parties. But if she served him applesauce at home, “he’d look at me like I was crazy,” Zeitlin said.

Like many parents, Zeitlin has been thinking about school lunch ahead of her son’s first day of kindergarten. Lunchtime will be different than it was at his small private preschool, where teachers could more closely monitor whether he was eating. She’s already been eyeing school lunch conversations in mom groups on Facebook, and she’s has new lunch boxes ready to pack.

She plans

See Full Page