The Naked Lunchbox

Cutting waste from kids’ school lunches

Soon it will be back to school for the kids. Which of course, means new school clothes, supplies, backpacks, and even lunch boxes.

I have three children and packing that midday meal each morning is something I’ll admit to not enjoying much. While the school lunches offered in my district are as nutritionally sound as they can be, I prefer my children to have a homemade lunch whenever possible

So I pack, wrap and hermetically seal my children’s food as if they were going to the moon instead of down the road to our local elementary school. What can really go wrong on a bus ride that’s less than 2 miles? I keep on packin’ anyway. I put a sandwich in some aluminum foil or waxed paper; I add some carrot sticks in a small plastic baggie; a few cookies in another baggie and I add a juice box. All of this times 3, every day of the week, for a whole school year. When I’ve gone to meet the kids for lunch I’m completely awed by the amount of trash generated in just one lunch period. Empty milk cartons, disposable plates, sporks, aluminum foil and all of those baggies! There has to be a better way.

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