Zero-Waste, Healthy Lunch Guide

Our Mission: We ignite the movement that empowers parents to protect children from harmful chemicals. Donate »

Blog

Janelle Sorensen

Saturday, September 04, 2010

These days it seems there’s a brown bag lunch revival. Especially since so many parents want their kids to eat healthier food than what schools typically provide and so many have to deal with food allergies.

Beyond just a brown bag with healthy food, consider packing a zero-waste (or very little waste) lunch. It may not always be a perfect lunch - some days the pantry and fridge may be a bit barren, some days maybe you’re just too tired to do all the prep, and some days might call for a special “naughty” treat. But, have some goals and just do your best.

Here are some tips and resources to pack your zero-waste, healthy lunches:

Tools:

A reusable lunchbox. There are great boxes and bags available these days. Just don’t get ones made from PVC.
A reusable sandwich wrap. Waxed paper or recycled aluminum foil are good options too, try to nix the plastic baggies.
A reusable ice pack to keep cold food cold.
Stainless steel or reusable plastic containers. If you use plastic containers, look for safer plastics like #2, 4, or 5 and hand wash them. You should also avoid using anything warm or acidic or fatty in plastic as it promotes leaching.
A thermos for soups, yogurt, etc.
A stainless steel beverage bottle for drinks.
Metal or bamboo silverware.
Cloth napkins.

Another great idea for your tool kit is cookie cutters. Make fun shapes out of sandwiches, cheese and slices of produce and your child is sure to get a smile – and a tummy-full of healthy food!

Healthy food choices include:

organic produce (cut into bite size shapes), whole grains, hummus, nuts, etc. Even if it’s not all organic, it’s really important to have a lot of whole, fresh foods - not the over-processed, over-packaged, single serving snacks marketed for school lunches.

Resources for healthy lunch ideas:

Product recommendations:

*Selected by Healthy Child CEO, Christopher Gavigan, self-proclaimed zero-waste lunch junkie

Buy through The SoftLanding’s Safe Munch program and help raise money for Healthy Child!

Go to The Soft Landing and click on the My Account tab in the upper navigation menu of the store.
Create a new account, being sure to enter the unique code "HealthyChild" in the Group Code section of the form.
Submit the form (you should see a message announcing your success).
Go shopping and they'll send Healthy Child a check for 10% of total purchases made online each month!

(Please note that you will need to log into your account each time you shop at the store in order for your purchases to be counted toward your donation total.)

And you know what? Zero-waste, healthy lunches aren’t just great for kids. Go ahead and pack one for yourself at the same time! Whether you know you’re going to need a lunch later or if you just think you might get snacky, it’s nice to have a little food on hand. It stops you from buying impulse foods that are not good for you or the planet.

What are your healthy school lunch tips? Any favorite products or resources?

Find Out More:

Download our Healthy School Lunch Pocket Shopping Guide
Learn tips for buying healthy food on a budget and making food fun for kids!
Submit your favorite healthy recipe! We randomly select a winner every quarter to win a fabulous prize package!

Posted by Jen McCleve on 08/29/2011 at 06:37 PM

Thanks for the tips on using reusable lunch boxes. I have my reusable shopping bags that I take to the store and my kids see that. I’m making an impression on them when they are young so that they will grow up understanding that our environment is important and we can do little things that will help.

Posted by My Phil and Ted Stroller on 10/01/2010 at 06:25 PM

I like the idea to use reusable lunch box, stainless steel, reusable plastic container, thermos, etc. But I think will be too heavy for a little kid to carry all that staff. It’ll be great if someone come up with idea to put all those things together and make something small and off cause reusable.

Posted by Amy Dawson on 09/10/2010 at 10:06 AM

I’d love to share my website filled with ideas, especially our post about composting in school. Our children’s school started composting last year with tremendous results. Here is the link to our post about composting: http://www.lunchtaker.com/blog/2009/12/composting-in-your-school/
Now the next step (and our school is working on that); encouraging parents to pack lunches with less throw away materials. Read about my daughter’s experiment in this link: http://www.lunchtaker.com/blog/2009/05/packing-an-earth-friendly-lunch-and-reducing-waste/

Posted by Marlo on 09/07/2010 at 04:41 PM

My concern is with the schools lunches and how much waste they are generating. Every item is encased in a plastic bag or plastic something (fruit cup). They had carrots and celery wrapped in a plastic bag. They even had one cookie in one plastic bag. I want to encourage my sons school to change. They use throw away trays.

Posted by MamaCat on 09/07/2010 at 12:59 PM

The Planet Box looks wonderful, I haven’t come across it before in my searching. Thanks for such a comprehensive list!

I wonder though, why aren’t LunchBots on your list? I was considering adding them to our lunch container array and have heard good things about them.

More comments: