A Guide to Packing School Snacks
Elementary aged students are nearly always asked to pack a snack to school. But when it’s early in the morning and you are scrambling to pack a lunchbox, gather their backpacks, get your children dressed, and a water bottle filled and into their pack – it feels like one more challenging task to be creative enough to pack a snack that gives your child variety and still be healthy. Here a guide to help you when planning and packing school snacks.
I received samples of YummySnacks and compensation. All opinions are my own.
To simplify mornings, I started a box of shelf-stable snacks that my kids could easily pick from and help themselves to a mom-approved snack to take to school. I do have a couple o choices in the fridge, as well, pre-packaged and ready to go.

- Soft fruits that are easily to smash like bananas and grapes, they’ll end up squished and unappealing
- Utensil based snacks like applesauce and fruit cups that require a spoon.
- Soft granola bars – these are easily smashed as well and end in a crumbly mess
- Candy – it ends up sticky and it’s not going to give them a long term energy boost
The key is to stay away from foods that tend to make a mess as they are hard to clean-up after in the classroom. You also want to stay away from sticky and difficult snacks.
Instead Choose –
- Crackers
- Pretzels
- String cheese
- Apple slices
- Baby carrots
- Dry cereal
- Popcorn
- Raisins
- Trail Mix (with or without nuts, depending on class allergies)
- YummySnacks Chips & Bars
If you need an easy to grab-n-go solution, YummySnacks make a healthy snack you can feel good about tossing into your child’s backpack. They are an all natural snack made with real food ingredients!
Their product line includes YummySnack Bars that are like your favorite candy bar – only loaded to fuel you through the day and made with ingredients like flaxseed, coconut, natural peanut butter and cocoa and other quality ingredients. But, they leave out all the stuff you don’t want to face by being gluten-free and low in sugar! They also are high in fiber and a source of protein an Omega 3s!
Their YummySnack Chips can let you sneak chips into their backpacks without guilt! They will remind you of a rice cake at first appearance, but they made with real Wisconsin cheese and a touch of natural seasoning. These snacks are gluten-free, grain-free, high in protein and calcium!
We could all tell that the YummySnacks were a healthier snack from the first bite, but that didn’t keep us from munching away. The bars are my favorite, but the boys are split on which variety they like best.
You can find more info on YummySnacks on their website, yummyhealth.com. They are available for purchase on Amazon.
My favorite is dried fruits and nuts.
Yogurt and fruit.
The YummySnack Chips™ – Pizza Flavor look really good! I Like to pack chips in lunches
Pretzels and organic fresh fruit!!
Raisins!
i like to pack an apple and some peanut butter, it’s a great tasting snack that is sure to fill you up!
Mmm, we can’t wait to try these! The pizza chips sound delicious!I like that they’re healthy and convenient. My kids pack some strange things for snack time. My youngest likes to take green beans, pea pods, anything from our garden. The older one always tries to get away with candy or chocolate but he knows it’s not allowed at his school. We usually compromise with fig cookies or fruit snacks.
String cheese
I like the cheddar flavor chips!
I like to pack things I know my grandsons will eat like nuts, cheese, apples and carrots.
I love to pack bananas/carrots/grapes. Easy and healthy!
I love the coconut snack bars.I love to pack healthy foods – that are all natural. These bars meet my desire and have Omega 3s.
I bet my kids would love to try the cookie dough bars! I like to pack celery and peanut butter for a back to school snack.
My favorite snack to pack for my kids are goldfish crackers
I would love to try the peppermint bars
i really like 100 calorie packs of almonds for back to school but those bars sound better!
I pack fresh fruit with a sandwich. I think dd would really like the cookie dough bar!
My kids love pretzels and fruits.
The kids always like cheese
i pack yogurt and string cheese
My kids seem to enjoy food they can put together, for example putting cheese on crackers.
I like to pack pretzels and hummus.
The brownie looks yummy. My favorite snack to pack is grapes.
My favorite back to school snacks to pack are yogurt or granola bars.
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I like cut up veggies.
I like that the snacks are low in sugar and have protein and fiber. I usually like to pack a fruit of some sort.
I Love to pack whole wheat crackers and humus in my kid’s school lunches. The YummySnack Chips™ – Cheddar Flavor chips would be great to pack in my kids lunches also! Love that Yummy Health products are gluten free. Thanks for the chance!
I like to pack fruit or nuts as a snack for my daughter. Carrot sticks work too
The Brownie Bar looks really good.
I like to pack fruits.
my child likes to snack on nuts
Although my son isn’t in school yet, we love to snack on the baby goldfish (mini goldfish)– they’re fun to play with and taste great. I really want to try YummySnack’s Brownie Bar. That sounds delicious!
We would like the YummySnack Bar™ – Coconut
The YummySnack Bar -Brownie Bar. All kids love brownies and these are healthier than homemade.
My kids like raisins as a snack, but they’d love to try these.
I like making my own trail mix.I’d love to try the peanut butter bars.These look really good.Thank you for the yummy giveaway 🙂
I’m not getting your daily email again.I got it one day then it stopped again.
I chose the YummySnack Bar™ – Brownie Bar. It’s low sugar and Gluten Free!
My son would love the peanut butter bar. However, they can’t bring that for snack in the classroom (no nuts allowed) so I would have to save that one for at home!
I like packing trail mix as a snack.
I think that my son would love the peppermint bars! He also loves things like green peppers in his lunch!
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One of the best things to pack are raisins because of the Potassium nutritional value and from their site I like the YummySnack Bar™ – Brownie Bar to pack. I think those would be so yummy!
The YummySnack Bar™ – Coconut would be great to pack for a snack. I also like to pack bags of popcorn or a banana.
I like to put fruit, granola bar, and/or mixed nuts
My favorite school snack to pack is fruit.
Everything needs to be nut free, so we tend to pack a lot of fruit, in hard containers so it doesn’t squish, and popcorn/crackers.
My favorite school snack to pack is dried fruit and fresh fruit such as grapes.
I like to pack nuts and string cheese, fresh fruits, and veggies.
My daughter loves snacking on peanut butter and crackers.
raisins and dried banana chips
The YummySnackChips in nacho flavor looks good! Best snacks: organic trail mix with no added sugars!
An apple!
I like trail mix
Never tried these, but usually just pack some chips…soooo unhealthy!
Any kind of nuts are great for kids.
I typically love to pack Almonds as a good snack pack for school–however, these snacks look great, especially the nacho chips!
This product line seems just what I was looking for. I need snacks to take on a vacation that will not miss up my healthy choices.
vmkids3 at msn dot com
LOL Kids aside, I want their Peanut butter Bar with dark chocolate. MUST have chocolate every day. The kids- well, for a snack when they are hungry, they seem to choose crackers or chips. So I have a feeling they would reach for their Pizza flavor chips first of all.
I love to pack cheese crackers, apples and peanut butter, and yogurt.
Never heard of these.The YummySnack Chips™ – Cheddar Flavor sounds good!
My favorite back to school snack to pack is fruit!
I like that you won’t find gluten, hydrogenated oils, trans fats, high-fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, artificial flavors or preservatives in any YummySnack products. And I used to like to pack apples or celery sticks with peanut butter!
I like to pack grapes in my daughter’s lunches.
I love to pack baby carrots and ranch, or apples and peanut butter!
My son would like the brownie bar. We like cheese sticks or crackers as snacks.
This is a great list. I have been trying to come up with different snacks my kids can bring.
These look perfect and so convenient! Anything to make that morning routine a little smoother!
I’ve never heard of this brand, but it definitely looks like something my kids and I would like. I love that they are healthy snacks and the mommy guilt won’t set in!
Great tips! I love seeing more gluten-free products like this coming onto the market!
I love having great snacks for my kids. I make sure they have a healthy snack at school everyday
This is a great list. My kids like to snack on Cherrios.
We need grab and go snacks on the weekend when we go to karate class.
These are great tips! String cheese and baby carrots are two of my faves to pack.
Our school doesn’t ask for a snack but I am still going to look for these in town.I’d add them to my son’s lunch 🙂
Raisins and trail mix were always my favorites growing up, those and the Kudos granola bars. These Yummy Snack bars look like they’d provide great fuel!
These are great tips. Saving for the new school year!
My kids have to bring a snack daily, it is tough finding a healthy snack to send with them. I will have to check YummySnacks out!!!
Get this – our school just instituted a snack policy where everything must be in its original packaging. Now we have to buy certain brand names and in snack packs!
I’m always looking for snacks to sent to school with the kids; love these.. my kids can’t get enough of them and I love knowing that they are a good choice. Thanks for sharing, glad your little ones enjoy them, too
These are great tips. I’m guilty of sending squishable or crushable snacks to school. O_O
These are great tips. When I was a kid, my snack usually ended up in the squished or crushed category. =/
My kids only take one of two things for their snack at school – goldfish crackers or pretzels. They don’t like to change it up.
I have never heard of yummy snacks before. They sound great and healthy!
I pack the soft squishy fruit in little bento boxes to keep them safe. I can’t believe my girls go back on Wednesday.
I haven’t heard of this brand of snacks! I wonder if I can find them here? I’m going to have to look for them. My kids don’t bring snacks to school but they snack a LOT at home after school!
Thank you for sharing your tips! My daughter is in high school and too cool to bring her lunch from home, but she hates the school lunches. So we compromise and I pack her lunches in just a regular little plastic storage container, or she puts it in a plastic bag. LOL!
Good ideas! Anything that makes our mornings easier would be awesome. I hadn’t heard of Yummy Snacks before. I’ll have to check them out.