Back to School: Making Litterless Lunch (with a little help from my friends)

It’s the middle of August and while there are still a few full weeks of summer, the truth is, we’re close to school starting again. The signs are everywhere – literally. You can’t go to the grocery store or the mall without seeing advertising for back to school everything from clothes to shoes and notebooks to protractors and backpacks to lunchbags. There’s no denying it, we are that close.

I’ve been away at camp for most of the summer and out of the daily habit of packing lunches. Over the weekend I got together with my friends, Liya and Cayla, to get creative about lunch. We decided that this year we were going to start the school year with some new and renewed commitments.

The new commitment that we all made was that we are going to make our own lunches for school this year. We decided that we would go shopping with our parents on the weekend and that every night after dinner we would pack and prepare our lunch for the next day.

The renewed commitment we made was to make our lunches 100% litter-free. It’s a big commitment and a really important one and I showed Liya and Cayla all of the different things that they can make and take for lunch with zero waste for the landfills.

First we set everything out on the kitchen table: reusable containers, main lunch, snacks, fruits, vegetables, waterbottles and lunchbags.

All of the fruits, vegetables and cheese were prepped and cut up (thanks Mom) so that we could fill our containers.

We all got started with a different part for our lunch. Liya started with fresh fruit and Cayla and I started with our main course.

Cayla made herself a litter-free version of those deli meat & crackers packages that you can buy ready-made at the grocery store. This special container has dividers in it to keep everything seperate.

I like to take yogurt as a snack for the morning recess and we buy a large container of yogurt and I fill up my reusable container to take it in. My container has a small freezer pack in the lid to keep it cold. Cayla went with marshmallows for an afternoon snack and Liya made her own fruit cup.

We each filled up our lunch bags with our main meals, snacks, reusable sporks and topped them off with reusable napkins from Funkins.

Then there was nothing left to do, but unpack them, set the table and sit down for lunch.

Here are the top 5 tips for making your litter-free lunches from Liya, Cayla and me:

1. Prepare all of your fruit and vegetables at the beginning of the week so that all you have to do is choose the ones that you want and add them to your containers.
2. Have a variety of different shapes and sizes of reusable containers handy.
3. Buy things that you love in large quantity and pack what you need for each day (like we did with the yogurt and marshmallows).
4. Everything you need for lunch can be reusable – from containers for lunch and snacks, to waterbottles and even your napkins. The ones that I use from Funkins double as placemats and will keep germs from your desk off your food (and also keep the mess from lunch off your desk. Win/Win!)
5. Making lunch is not hard and it’s something that you can do yourself. We think your parents will appreciate the help.

Bonus Tip: Like most things, it’s more fun to do it with your friends.

I’d love to know what tips you would add. If you have any great ideas to share, I’d love to hear them!

 

Note: I am taking part in the #FunkinsBackToSchool blog campaign. While I have received compensation as part of my affiliation with this program, the opinions shared are my own.