My five year old doesn’t eat. Well, he does eat, but most of the time just enough to make it to the next couple of hours. He definitely lacks the long-term perspective. This causes problems at school because, even though I provide plenty of food in his snack and lunch bags, he leaves a lot of it untouched. Not eating can lead him to grouchiness and unattentiveness and we don’t want him to go down that road if we can avoid it.
So I think my husband was trying to be helpful when he emailed me this lunch chart:
Look, it’s made by Real California Milk, the cow people! I actually think it’s a great idea and allows the kids to pick what they’d like for lunch. The only problem is, even when my kid chooses his food, it doesn’t guarantee he’ll eat it. So we’ve got some work to do…
Here’s a link to the Real California Milk lunch chart in PDF format if you’d like to use it with your own kids.
mydailycow.wordpress.com 
It’s helpful to have a go to chart with versatile mix and match ideas when packing lunches for kids of all ages. :D
I think it’s a great idea to take this list when shopping for groceries and offer variety. I’m still at the stage where I need my son to eat at least 2 things I give him, and no matter what it is, he’s having a hard time, but I’m hopeful!