How to Make a Grab and Go After School Snack Station

Need some quick easy after school snack ideas? Keep your snacks stocked and organized with this DIY Grab and Go After School Snack Station!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The makers of the HORMEL™ NATURAL CHOICE™ brand. All opinions are 100% mine.

I love the summer months for all the free time, late nights full of family fun and relaxed mornings of sleeping in (anything past 7:30 am is sleeping-in to me, lol.) But by the end of summer break, I begin to look forward to getting the kids back to school and in a routine. And – ok, maybe just a bit of peace and quiet for me too!

When the kids were first starting elementary school, I would try to ease them back into the routine of school by gradually sending them to bed and waking them up earlier.

Now that I look back, I can see that “easing them back into the routine,” never really worked and now, we just have fun up until the last day summer and start the school routine cold turkey on the first day of school.

Getting Organized for Snack Time

I’ve got the lunch packing routine down and with the first day of school just around the corner, I need to work on the homework and snack routines. School lunch is served before noon, and since both the kids ride the bus, they don’t get home until after 3pm. I know they’re hungry when they get home, as it never fails, the very first words when they come in the house are “What’s for snack?”

The time between arriving home, getting homework done and then leaving for either scouts, volleyball or basketball is very short, and I want to make sure they are having a good snack. I am always looking for easy after school snack ideas.

To help streamline snack time and encourage healthy choices and portion control, I’ve put together a little grab and go after school snack station in the fridge so the kids can choose their snacks before they settle down for to do their homework.

How to Make a Grab and Go After School Snack Station:

To make your snack station, all you need is a couple of baskets, bins or even an unused drawer that can be dedicated to easy grab and go snacks.

I love these refrigerator bins from mDesign. There are so many options and sets to choose from. They are easy to clean and just great for staying organized.

Once you have the container ready, all you have to do is fill it full of healthy snack choices!

Need Snacks Ideas?

These quick, grab and go snacks are great for both kids and adults. For me, I almost always wait until I’m starving for my snack and then will often reach for anything (healthy or not.) I love having easy, healthy choices to grab for these moments.

A Few Refrigerator Snack Station Favorites:

boiled eggs
pre cut carrots and celery
individual hummus packages
yogurt
fruit
cheese sticks
Hormel snacks
drinks

Grab and Go Pantry Snack Ideas:

I have a similar grab and go station in the pantry. I love using the Amazon Subscribe and Save option to keep the pantry snacks stocked.

Jerky
Protein Bars (I like the kind bars for me and keep them hidden, lol)
Nuts
Chewy/Granola Bars
Pretzels
Crackers
Popcorn

Teaching Kids to Make Healthy Choices

I love that letting them choose whatever they want from the station is not only teaching them to make healthy choices, but also gives them some independence and is one less thing I need to worry about!

Do you have a favorite easy after school snack idea to share? Let us know in the comments below!

Don't miss any more posts!

Follow along on:

Feedly, Bloglovin', your favorite feed reader, or signing up via email and have new posts delivered to your email box each week!

About the Author

Jamie Sanders is a wife and mom of 2, located in the heart of Texas. She founded Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom in 2011 as a place to share creative ideas and family friendly recipes. Her work has been featured on Martha Stewart, Woman’s World, HuffPost, TODAY, Pioneer Woman, HGTV, CNET, Good Housekeeping, Yahoo, Oprah Daily, and Redbook, plus many other publications. To date, she had given away just under a million free pdf sewing patterns.

10 Comments

I love this idea! I do this with my littles as well, it’s good to always have fresh snack ideas coming in.

I really like this, it makes things easier when the kids come back from school and for packing lunch packs as well.

Thanks for sharing.

How fantastic is this? I need easy organizers for my refrigerator…love this!

Great idea. My kids will only eat what they see, so making the snacks front and center in the fridge would work for me!

I can’t believe we’re back to school already! Love this idea for snacks and lunches.

The snack station is a very clever idea. Kids can choose what they want to take and that is so good.

That after-school time is rough. The kids will eat from the second they are done with school until dinner (not that they’ll want any after all those snacks). This will help fill them up and control portions.

I love this organization idea and those Hormel snack packs are my kids favorites. BTW, where did you find those bins? I have to have them for my fridge!

Jamie says:

at

It was a 4 piece set I picked up on Amazon and they have 4 configurations to choose from. You can see them here: http://amzn.to/2vqzdnz

Reply

I love this idea. I totally may have to do it. I am trying to be better about portion control in the house and these would totally help with that during busy, chaotic after school season! I used to do this with plastic bags, but certainly love the idea of being able to do it in the fridge for items that must stay cooler.