Green Options

Our family uses waste free lunch systems (LunchSense and Laptop Lunches). We LOVE our lunch containers as much as we love the food inside!

Today, my 6 year old is off on a field trip to watch a play. The children have been instructed (through numerous notes and voice reminders) to bring a THROW AWAY LUNCH. This goes against every grain in my body (and mind). I was a parent chaperone for the trip until it was canceled due to snow. On the original date, I showed up with both our lunches packed inside one lunch box. I figured the throw away bag didn’t pertain to the Mama who was keeping tabs on it.

(Photo by Rafal Fabrykiewicz at Dreamstime under RF-LL)

Since I couldn’t go today, I had to pack a toss away lunch. The teachers (and I understand) do not want to be responsible for 75 lunch boxes at a public park and on the bus (though they told our children that it was okay to bring a DS, hmmmm… go ahead and bring a $200 electronic, but don’t bring a lunch box).

How can you create a disposable lunch sans baggies (I’m-plastic-I-stay-in-the-landfill-for-10-lifetimes)? That is a challenge I’m still pondering as I sit here typing. Here’s the tips I’ve come up with so far. Please feel free to share your ideas!

Comments are NOW CLOSED. Congratulations to Natalie who had the winning comment! (updated 12/15/08).

I’m a fan of the waste free lunch. The last thing I want to do is send my kids or husband off with a trash filled lunch. Even more important is to keep their food safe. My family also appreciates a lunch that still resembles the food it is when they open it several hours after I’ve packed it.

Enter my new favorite way to pack lunches, LunchSense. These innovative lunch systems meet every requirement I have! They enable a waste free lunch, are made out of safe materials which means my family won’t be ingesting leached in chemicals and the boxes are even machine washable!

What I really love are the inner containers. The lunch boxes come with a set of fully lidded containers made of polypropylene (#5) and the drink containers are polypropylene or polyethylene (#2). In the words of Nancy Owen Myers- founder of LunchSense, “These (plastics) are considered by GreenPeace and others as “food-safe”, but I prefer to use the term “time-tested”.”

More information and contest after the jump.

Going back to school poses a dilemma for mindful parents. We don’t want to compromise our children’s health with school lunches. We also do not want our children to feel set apart in a negative way. Earth Friendly lunches have been a hot topic lately, and there are numerous suggestions on how to green your child’s (or your own) lunch.

So, we ponder, how do healthy parents handle this? In our house, we decided to invest in Laptop Lunch Boxes for each of our school age children. These lunch systems allow me to pack healthy, fresh, and non-disposable lunches. My children love the lunch boxes, because they are cool and the envy of their friends.