Family Roundup: How to Get Out of the School Lunch Slump

Do your kids dump out half of what you packed for lunch when they get home from school? Are you packing the same PB&J or turkey sandwich every day? Is it a challenge to find healthy, affordable food choices to pack for lunch that your kids will actually eat and enjoy?

Every parent hits a packed lunch slump at some point.  Part of the problem is what we send a packed lunch to school in.  Most of us use a soft-sided lunch bag, subjecting the sandwich, fruit and other items we pack to being squashed and becoming very unappealing by the time lunch rolls around.  Nutritionist and Bastyr University faculty member Cynthia Lair is author of Feeding the Whole Family.  She is also the co-producer and host of the popular on-line cooking show, Cookus Interruptus, which shows how to cook family-pleasing meals from organic ingredients, despite life's interruptions.  She recommends bento box style containers including Laptop Lunches as a better school lunch transport system. Metal, glass or plastic bento style containers allow you to offer many more options for lunch including dinner leftovers, steamed veggies, pasta, noodles or rice.  Smaller containers can contain dipping sauces that kids love to dunk their food in including hummus or barbeque sauce.

You can purchase Laptop Lunches at Whole Foods in and Redmond.  At the Redmond Whole Foods, you'll find them in kitchen gadget section near the produce along with other great containers perfect for expanding the choices you can pack for lunches. You can also purchase Laptop Lunches bento boxes online.  And Cookus Interruptus viewers can get 10% off their order by using the coupon code “cookus” (no quotes).  

Laptop Lunches consist of a soft-sided case with sturdy, dishwasher safe containers (top rack only) that fit together inside, just like a bento box.  The containers are free of lead, BPA, and PVC.  The system will pay for itself over time as you’ll eliminate the need for plastic sandwich bags and you can offer a much greater range of food for lunch. There is a free menu library on the company's website with a year’s worth of fun lunch ideas including “breakfast for lunch”, “easy pizza bento” and “gluten-free goodness”.

Lair says we need as parents to set a goal to add a new food to our child’s menu every week so they “don’t end up as Sixth graders who’ll only eat mac and cheese.” She reminds parents that it takes up to “15 exposures” before a child will accept a new food.  Letting your child pick out the fruit and veggies that will go into their meals, including lunch, she says is a good way to motivate them to eat them.

Ideally she says school lunches should include “protein, which kids need to grow, a complex carbohydrate and a fruit and veggies to provide energy.”  Parents should limit sugar, says Lair, but worry less about fat, which is actually needed for brain development in kids. 

Moms Amy Hemmert and Tammy Pelstring are co-founders of Santa Cruz-based Obentec maker of Laptop Lunches.  Hemmert was inspired to create the system from her four years of living in Japan before she had her kids, now teenagers.

Hemmert says when it comes to school lunches, parents need to mindful of their long term nutrition goals for their family.

“When our kids are little we think we have all the time in the world to teach them about healthy food choices but we really don’t,” Hemmert says.  She says parents should get kids involved early in making lunches and let them “ramp up” as they get older. 

Preschool age kids can start by pulling a step stool up to the sink and filling their water bottle.  Hemmert recommends families pack lunches up at night, adding anything that could not do well overnight in the fridge like crackers, at the last minute in the morning.  Insist kids pack both a serving of fruit and veggies, but let the child pick which ones.  

You can also make veggies and fruit more appealing by changing up the presentation.

“Carrots can be packed steamed one day, cut into different shapes the next day or tossed in with pasta or soup,” Hemmert says.  Letting kids be part of the process will help ensure that they actually eat the lunch and enjoy it, she says.

If you know you need to pack healthier, more kid-appealing lunches but are feeling overwhelmed, you might check out MiniBento. Sammamish-based MiniBento offers healthy and delicious pre-packed lunches and was founded by two eastside moms, Karolina Janczuk and Ela Cwalina.  MiniBento lunch ingredients are often locally grown and organic, the packaging is biodegradable and the choices are truly kid pleasing and delicious. 

My kids sampled MiniBento lunches recently and both gave them a big thumbs up.  My tween commented that the veggies and fruit were “super fresh and delicious”.  Minibento lunches cost around $6 per large size lunch, $5 for the smaller size, and menu options include pasta with fruit, veggies and cheese, delicious wraps and Italian style with crackers, meat, veggies, fruit and multi-grain crackers.

Cwalina and Juanczuk recommend getting kids involved early in the process of making meals and packing lunches including shopping and cooking together so the whole family learns while they are doing it. And Cwalina says “make it play time and fun." Children “eat with their eyes," says Cwalinia, so offer food choices in a rainbow of colors, which will also help ensure they are getting proper nutrition.

Juanczuk says get out of the white sandwich bread rut by using whole grain breads, pita, bagels or a little whole grain buns for sandwiches. Cwalina suggests using cookie and sandwich cutters to make sandwiches more appealing. They suggest several books for creative and healthy packed lunch ideas including Yum-Yum Bento Box, Kawaii Bento Boxes: Cute and Convenient Japanese On the Go and Cynthia Lair’s Feeding the Whole Family.

Juanczuk says it is important that parents make the extra effort to teach their kids healthy eating habits. “We make sure our kids learn to do math and read and write well.  Teaching them healthy eating habits is equally important and will also serve them for life.” 

Minibento is currently available to order at several private schools on the eastside and for camps at the . Janczuck and Cwalina hope to also offer Minibento at public schools in the future as well.  If you are interested in your school offering Minibento as a lunch option you can contact them at 425 868-9229 or  karolina@minibento.com and ela@minibento.com.