The Root Cause

Term 3 – Quick Lunchbox Reset Ideas 💡

Term 3 is back in full swing. Many parents are feeling over the whole lunchbox thing by this time of year, so I thought I would dedicate this blog post to give you a quick lunchbox reset.

Lunchboxes make up 30-40% of what your child eats Monday - Friday. They are a great opportunity to support your child's wellbeing. I hope this helps you feel better about packing lunchboxes for another 2 terms.

Packing a lunchbox for learning

The reason why I always bang on about lunchboxes is that they can impact your child's learning and behaviour. This can have a knock on impact to other children in the class and also to teacher stress levels.

Follow these 5 simple steps to pack a lunchbox for learning. Click on the image to print this off and pop it on your fridge for a quick memory jog.

If you're kids aren't quite ready for this style of lunchbox yet, the best thing to do is choose one column you'd like to improve on. Just start there.

For instance, just say your child has a juice box every day and not water. You could start with improving on this column. Juice boxes tend to contain about 6 teaspoons of sugar, they create 3 pieces of waste and unless the boxes are recycled, the box takes 300 years to break down. So what you could do is have conversations with your child about the waste side of juice boxes to explain that you want to help the planet. Then make a change to water every second day. Once this is a way of life, change to water every day.

If your child has no vegetables, this could be another great column to start with. Here's the thing, if your kids can't see it, they can't eat it. So if you're not putting in a veg, then they definitely can't eat it. Start by popping in a few pieces of a veg they do like. If they don't eat it in their lunchbox, don't stress. Keep it and use it in a soup or to make broth (you do need to waste it). Continue to put it in the lunchbox again. Make it normal to have it in the lunchbox.

Protein for the win in Lunchboxes
From the data we have collected since 2019 on over 24,000 lunchboxes, we know protein is one of the biggest missing ingredients in lunchboxes.

Protein is important for muscle growth and development. It also plays an important role in helping with satiety. Adding in protein to the lunchbox will also help with:
 👏 increasing their concentration span (have you ever tried to concentrate when you are hungry?).
 👏 protecting their memory (Harvard report).
 👏 reducing the need to add in additional snacks as a main lunch with a protein will keep your child fuller.

Click on the image above and print it to remind you of different protein options.

If you're worried about packing protein due to food safety reasons, I offer the following information.

Food safety when packing perishables
Many parents share they don't pack protein because they are worried about food staying safe.

As a general rule, lunchbox food should be maintained below 5 degrees. If it goes over this, it needs to be used within 2-4 hours. Over 4 hours it should be thrown away. (source: The Food Information Safety Council).

Obviously, it’s near impossible to determine the temperature of your child’s lunchbox at recess and lunchtime. However, I offer the following summary of the tips for keeping food safe.

  • Pack lunch in an insulated cooler bag
  • Include one to two ice bricks or freeze half filled drink bottles (top up in the morning)
  • Keep lunchboxes in insulated bags in the fridge for as long as you can before packing them in the school bag
  • Ask your children to ensure their school bags out of direct sunlight
  • Some sites suggest freezing the lunches
  • The one thing they all seem to say in common is that having a something frozen in the lunchbox should be sufficient to keep the lunchbox food safe.
  • Make sure your food is ‘clean’ before it goes to school. eg. made with clean hands, not cross contaminated with raw meats etc.

Homemade Simple Swaps
Making some simple swaps of packet snacks for homemade snacks can reduce the load of industrialised ingredients on your child's body. The latest research is finding that some industrialised ingredients in factory food (packet snacks) may be having a negative impact on our microbiome, which in turn can impact mood, learning and behaviour.

In addition to reducing this load, in many cases, it will save you money to make snacks at home. Here's some links to recipes for you to try these swaps.