Inside: Disposable lunches is the new challenge with preschools, daycares, and schools having new health and safety guidelines for the upcoming school year. If youre worried, weve got you covered with disposable lunch products and lunch ideas to make your life easier.
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Ive spent YEARS perfecting my system of packing cute lunches for my kids. In fact, that is probably how we became friends in the first place! Oh the times Ive had poking red bell peppers through the end of star-shaped food cutters with a straw just so my child will eat a vegetable in their school lunch. I place it nicely in their pretty sectioned lunch boxes so my picky eaters food doesnt touch (because the world will end if it does, right?) They take it to school and most of the time they eat it. My efforts paid off.
Fast forward to today, when were already stressed out about if there will even BE school in the fall and what that will look like, Ive heard from parents all over the country that say their towns and daycares are calling for completely. disposable. lunches. Whaaa..?
What disposable lunches means will likely vary from location to location, but Ive come up with 9 strategies for building disposable lunches successfully.
School provided lunches are a beautiful thing. They involve zero thinking or effort on our part and provide convenience for parents who already have so much on their plate.
While hot lunch could look different this year as schools may be favoring disposable lunch options like prepackaged sandwiches & fruit cups, those are wonderful options that provide nutrients your kids need to make it through the school day.
You will have peace of mind knowing your child had a full belly and was able to focus on learning!
If youll be sending lunches every day, you need the right supplies to make a disposable lunch packing system!
Here are a few of my must-have disposable lunch packing items for the fall
You may have a bag stuffed with other plastic bags that you save for something. Well, now might be their time to shine! They are great for kids because you can tie them which makes for an easy handle. They fit in backpacks and of course, are disposable.
When you have a picky eater, if the foods touch it can be a complete no-go. Which means, throwing all the lunch components in one bag may not work. Instead you can choose to use individual snack bags to separate out veggies, crunchy snacks, soft sacks, or wet snacks like cut fruit, etc. Sandwiches can be wrapped in parchment/wax paper, cling wrap, or aluminum foil. I like these sealable paper sandwich bags because they are recyclable. But, any of these standard bags will do the job perfectly and your kids can even decorate them (bonus activity for when you just need 5 minutes to yourself!)
Maybe your child is really missing their ninja turtles lunchbox they picked out for school last year. You can likely find some zip top bags with their favorite characters like Mickey Mouse or Buzz Lightyear.
Im not sure about you, but my child is a dipper. I almost always pack a dip or spread with any vegetables in hopes theyll come back devoured! These condiment cups with lids are the perfect size for dips, hummus, or sunflower seeds.
These disposable fruit cup containers with lids are perfect for daycare and great for all kinds of lunch sides like yogurts & pudding.
Yogurt Hack: fill plastic popsicle bags with your favorite yogurt. Freeze it & use it as an ice pack. By lunch time it will defrost and your kid has a no mess disposable yogurt tube snack!
There are lots of options for this, you can grab some at your local dollar or party store to save some money and get some fun colored forks and spoons for your little one. There are also some great recyclable options out there if that is your thing too, like these wooden disposable lunch utensils.
Toothpicks are essential to our food packing formula. I often add food picks with lunches to make them more novel. Since our favorite food picks wont be compliant, I found these disposable ones that still offer just as much fun!
Not being able to stick a fresh ice pack in with lunch will be a struggle for so many. But, luckily I have some disposable lunch hacks on how to make your own!
Official guidance is to include 1 or 2 ice packs in all lunches to ensure that the food stays safe. Since you may not be able to add in an ice pack, youll need to choose foods that do not require refrigeration or that can make it to lunch time without going bad.
Lunch items with protein that tend to be safe for a few hours without refrigeration:
Foods that are most likely to cause food borne illness in a lunch box without refrigeration are: leafy greens or pre-prepared salads, cooked rice, cooked potatoes (or potato salad), deli meat, and cut or pre-prepared (purchased at the store) fruit melons and berries are the highest risk, but others can be contaminated as well. Make disposable ice packs and include in the lunches if you want to send these foods.
If in doubt, send a disposable ice pack!
Wash your hands and all produce thoroughly before putting into a lunchbox. If you cut the fruits and veggies, use a clean knife and cutting board and quickly put into a clean disposable container.
Uncut fruits and veggies that do not require cooling:
If you cut these fruits and veggies up, include a disposable ice pack if you can.
Its a really good idea to include a disposable ice pack if you send these fruits and veggies, as these are the fruits and veggies most likely to cause food borne illness:
Related: Need More Ideas for Including Variety Into School Lunches? Snag My Free Veggie Shopping List & Meal Planner!
It is okay to include packaged snacks in disposable lunches, even if it is not your norm. This is a great time and reason to use pouches if your child likes them. If you do send pouches, check to make sure the pouches you choose do not require refrigeration.
In an effort to avoid shared water fountains, many schools are talking about water bottle policies. If your school will allow the use of a reusable water bottle, choose a sturdy one & write their name on it.
If a reusable water bottle is not allowed, buy prepackaged water in bulk & use stickers to decorate the outside. You can also use a sharpie to write your childs name or color the caps so they know which one is theirs.
I compiled a list of 10 simple & balanced disposable lunch ideas that well be using in the fall:
There is so much for us to wrap our heads around as adults and I imagine it is very confusing for our little ones. This is a good chance to come up with a strategy for talking to your children about the changes that will be happening at school this year.
Link to Tongqi
They may be used to lunch time being their chance to socialize with friends and could feel anxious or uncertain about these new rules. It is so important to talk through these emotions so they feel prepared and can start the year on a positive note!
So your kid is going on a school field trip or having field day and it is your mission to pack a completely disposable lunch. Piece of cake right? I have been a chaperone on a few field trips over the years, and I have seen some fabulous lunches and some utterly fail lunches. I am here to share some helpful advice while keeping it easy and food safe for everyone! Ive had my own lunch fails too, but in the end the kids have a blast and its just one day so dont stress!
Ill call this a lesson learned from our own field trip fail. Pack foods in a zip top bag, and then bag all that in a gallon size zip top bag.
Why so much plastic? What happened: My daughter tripped getting off the bus at school and the juice boxes I had packed pierced the brown bag AND the plastic shopping bag which sent her lunch flying across the sidewalk at school. Thankfully, not much of the food was damaged, because the other items were in zip bags, but the juice boxes were free to fly around! I noticed something was wrong when my daughter had her lunch in a different plastic grocery bag at field trip time, which leads me to tip two.
For our family, food allergies are super important. To avoid any confusion, or being sent to the peanut butter table, I label our lunches with No peanuts, no tree nuts. Sometimes the Sunbutter we use gets confused as peanut butter. For our food allergy child, I even go as far as to label each bagged item and she knows to only eat the items with her name on it. I tie and tape bags shut where possible, but still keep it easy to open when its time to eat. While there are generally few incidents of exploding lunches on school field trips, we understand its a possibility and Id hate for my child to be stuck in a situation where shes not sure if her lunch had been contaminated with allergens.
Also field trip day is not the day to try a new food. Go with safe foods, even if your kid has an entire lunch of Oreos! (This girls dream!)
Lets be honest, your kid is going to eat half of what you send because FIELD TRIPS ARE SO EXCITING!!! My own kids, who love food, only eat some of what I pack them for a field trip. (I do insist they at least consume the sandwich and drink two drinks on warm/outside activity days, and please do not bring home the leftovers!)
Bananas, lets talk bananas. The truth is more bananas will get thrown out than will get eaten simply because it smells, and oh noits BROWN. One banana, two banana, three banana split.into the trash. Want to send a fruit, maybe try one of those little cute oranges, fruit cup, or squeeze fruit packet.
It takes time to herd groups of kids to the field trip lunch areas. It takes time to find their brown bag lunch in the boxes or bins they were placed in the bus. It takes time to catch up with your friends you havent seen since you got off the bus! It takes time to open the sauce packet on the pizza Lunchable, but zero time to splash that sauce everywhere but the bread! How much time does a kid really have to eat before its time to wash up and continue the field trip? About fifteen-twenty minutes (even when teachers say thirty).
So send that kid with a juice box, napkins, sandwich, and some other bagged snack and let them have fun with less food waste! Its just one day, the other days you can bento with reusable containers, and just normal looking food!
Heres some great tips from FoodSafety.gov on packing school lunches. Figure if your kid leaves home between 8-9am, and the field trip lunch doesnt happen until 12pm thats FOUR hours of lost refrigeration time. Lots of the tips are applicable to the every day lunch too. Dont send the cold sub or lunchmeat sandwich on a June field trip
https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/events/backtoschool/index.html
Remember the 2-Hour rule: you must keep hot foods HOT and cold foods COLD. Meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs (also known as perishables) only last 2 hours at the room temperature of 90 °F or below before they go bad. If the room temperature exceeds 90 °F, the perishables will only last 1 hour before they must march back into the refrigerator or freezer. (Food Safety 101: How to Dodge an Attack of Bacteria in Lunchboxes)
Ideas: (food allergy friendly)
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So your kid is going on a school field trip or having field day and it is your mission to pack a completely disposable lunch. Piece of cake right? I have been a chaperone on a few field trips over the years, and I have seen some fabulous lunches...
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