It's about that time. My daughter Jordan starts kindergarten on Tuesday, so I'm busy getting everything organized for her first day of school. Uniform, check. School supplies, check. Lunch box...er, still getting my act together on this one.
Buying Jordan's lunch box last year was the sort of mindless activity you'd think it should be. We whizzed down the aisle at Super Target, grabbed a pink Disney Princess number off the shelf, and continued shopping for lunchbox-ready foods to fill it up. For practical purposes, the pink lunchbox served her well. But on the last day of school, after surveying the frayed edges and stains that refused to be scrubbed off, I unceremoniously pitched the sagging satchel in the trash. "We'll buy a new one next fall," I promised her.
Well, fall is almost here, and what didn't merit two seconds of thought last year has suddenly become a weighty decision, if not a moral quandary. Or maybe I'm accepting the fact that school lunch, like most every other choice we make when it comes to our kids, can become either an occasion for teaching or another passed-up opportunity to make a difference.
Did you know that an average school-age child using a disposable lunch generates 67 pounds of garbage per school year? This equates to 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for just one average-size elementary school. Next time you visit your child's school, take note of the lunches being eaten there. You're likely to see:
- Sandwiches sealed in disposable bags
- Chips, cookies, granola bars, and cheese in single-use packages
- Single-serving yogurt, applesauce, and pudding in disposable containers
- Disposable juice boxes, water bottles, and milk cartons
- Plastic forks and spoons
- Paper napkins
- Disposable paper and plastic bags
Heck, on any given day last year, Jordan's lunch contained half that list. However, after spending a year researching tips on saving money by saving the planet for my book Green, American Style, I'm vowing to take more of my own advice.
Here are 6 things I'll be doing consistently this year to ensure healthy dining for my daughter while teaching her to go easier on the environment:
1. Pack a lunch box containing reusable containers. The Laptop Lunch is the niftiest lunchbox I've seen yet, especially because it comes with an indispensable User's Guide full of recipes. I bought a new Laptop Lunch for Jordan at Green Living in Lakewood, a great shopping experience if you haven't tried it yet. This special lunchbox comes with an attractive array of temperature-controlled compartments in appealing shapes and colors. Some of these are the perfect size for condiments and dipping sauces, such as kid favorites like Ranch dressing and ketchup. Bento boxes also work because they come with their own reusable containers. I plan to buy one of these too and switch back and forth to keep things interesting (and take some of the pressure off on those occasions when I forget to clean it out the night before).
2. Pack drinks in resusable, BPA-free cups. Bisphenol-a (BPA) is an industrial chemical used to make polycarbonate plastic. BPA, which is considered by environmental scientists to be an "endocrine disruptor", is used by almost 95% of major U.S. baby bottle manufacturers and can also be found in water bottles, the lining inside metal cans, and food storage containers. Researchers suggest that even low levels of BPA may cause adverse health effects such as obesity, diabetes, altered immune function, and the early onset of puberty. For some fantastic tips for avoiding BPA - and a hilarious video from my friends at DadLabs.com - check out this great article.
3. Avoid pre-packaged foods. Granted, individually-packaged foods are easy and convenient to pack in lunch boxes. But did you know that the more foods are packaged, the more expensive they actually become? For every $11 we spend at the grocery story, $1 of it goes toward packaging! Putting cereals, raisins, trail mix, berries, and other healthy snacks into reusable plastic offers kids the feeling of opening up cute little containers full of yummy treats - but without creating all that waste.
4. Go organic. Garbage isn't just in the waste that goes into the trash, but also in the trash we put into our environment. Agricultural runoff from pesticides is toxic for our oceans and bad for our bodies. The myriad chemicals we ingest daily through our food, water, air, and personal care products are contributing to a proliferation of environmentally-related conditions such as cancer, asthma, AD/HD, and even infertility. Thick skins in some fruits and vegetables offer natural protection for some foods, but other foods you buy, such as grapes and apples, should be organic whenever possible. Click here to see the newly updated Dirty Dozen.
5. Exercise creativity to avoid processed foods. Most moms know that cookies, chips, and even "fruit" treats are not healthy. So why do we pack them? Because the kids enjoy them so much. This is as much a function of advertising, habit, and convenience as it is of the quality of taste. The American Academy of Pediatrics tells us that most children will not accept a new food until it is offered at least 10 times. As long as we're going to all this trouble to get our kids to eat, why not do it right the first time so we don't have to deprogram them later? It's worth spending an afternoon or two finding clever recipes for snacks to keep at the ready so we don't succumb to the temptation at the store.
6. Compost the leftovers. Why pass up a daily opportunity to enrich your compost with the banana peels and apple cores that your kids cart home? I'll tell you why I sometimes let this go. It's because my composter is full and until I clean it out, it can't accommodate more. So, I'm committing to not simply composting, but to using the compost in order to make room for more.
I've just covered the basics here, but I'm always in the market for more good advice on healthy, eco-friendly school lunches. Please share your tips with me if you have some!
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