The daily green - 4 Ways To Green Your Kid’s Lunch Box
Karen Berner / Food Editor
You’ve “greened up” your home, mode of transportation and family meals. What’s next? With school just around the corner for millions of kids, the possibility of greening their lunch box is just another way to introduce safe, sustainable foods and products into their burgeoning environmentally-friendly lifestyle.
School lunches once cooked in cafeterias by nefarious hair-netted lunch ladies are a thing of the past and in their place, more and more schools are offering food from pre-packaged containers that are simply re-heated before serving. The best way to avoid this nebulous type of fare (which you can never be sure is safe, healthy, or grown sustainably) is by one, creating the meals yourself at home, and two, packaging it in containers of reusable and sustainable means.
We’ve got you covered with a bunch of delicious meal choices that you and your children can have fun making and packing into a lunch box — now take your sustainability mission a step further with 4 easy ways to green their school lunch box that may elicit a “thank you” from even the most finicky of kids.
1. Pack A No-Waste Lunch Box:
A Pink Laptop Lunch Box
2. Lunch Box Alternatives: So, you’ve gone the distance of preparing your own food, now its time to consider your lunch box of choice to put it in. Laptop Lunch Boxes were created by two eco-conscious Moms about seven years ago when the savvy two realized that the best way to help parents pack wholesome, low-waste lunches was to “provide them with a lunch system that was not only convenient and economical, but also appealing to kids.” Thus, the Laptop Lunch Box was born. Made of lead-free plastic, it’s unique design, reminiscent of a bento box; features single serve individual containers, reusable utensils, a water or juice bottle and a handy carrying case.
If lunch sacks made from organic cotton or recycled plastic soda bottles are more your children’s bag, reusablebags.org offers a cool selection too — some even come with non-toxic reusable freezer packs.
Annie’s Bunny Grahams
3. Include Fun, Organic Snacks That Rival Their Vending Machine Counterparts: (Here’s a short list of kiddie crowd pleasers to chew on.)
4. End The Sandwich Doldrums: Kids like to play with their food and eat with their hands (some of us adults still relish in those activities too.) Get them involved in making the foods that they’ll be taking for their lunches.
Burritos, quesadillas, soft tacos, and wraps are all great sandwich alternatives and travel well in a lunch box. Spend some time with them in the garden choosing vegetables, take them shopping and have them pick out different ingredients like vegetables, fruit, healthy snacks, and whole grain pastas for the recipes you make together.
Want to take a more proactive approach to ensure that school cafeteria food meets your green standards? Check out the Farm To School Program which partners schools and local farmers. This program includes farm visits, farmers’ visits to classrooms, and students participate in a wide variety of agricultural experiential education programs.
The USDA National Farm To School Program is another alternative that works with schools to not only connect them with small local farms to increase the amount of locally grown food served in schools, but also provides health and nutrition education opportunities for teachers, parents, and students by means of farm visits, classroom education, and school garden opportunities.
And one last suggestion, The O’Mama Report offers 11 Tips For Change that helps you map out a plan for getting organic foods into your school district.
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