Back to School - Lunches

It’s that time of year again!  The hustle and bustle of finding school supplies and shopping for new school clothes!  The days of sleeping in, late breakfasts are slowly coming to an end and days of chaos and scrambling to get the kids out the door are upon us.

With a little bit of preparation and planning we can start this school year on the right foot especially when it comes to the dreaded packing lunches.

School aged children (grade 1 to high school) may eat more than 2,400 lunches in their lifetime. 

That's a lot of lunches!

Start by getting your lunch routine started before the children go back to school!

o  Make sure you have a supply of sandwich bags, food containers, thermos’s, reusable water bottles, lunch kits all in a designated area in the kitchen

o  Ask your children to come up with ideas that they might want to have for lunches

o  Sit down as a family and have them come up with the meal plan for lunches for the week.  This will help you to be able to create a grocery list to streamline your next grocery trip

Recruit some help

o   Children and youth are more likely to try new foods and eats whats in the lunch if they help prepare it

o   Involving children as early as possible in the meal preparation and planning to promote long term healthy eating and lifestyle skills

o   Make it fun – use food as a teaching tool for colours, texture and shapes and even where it comes from, textures

Make cooking a family affair

Get Organized

On the weekends or in the evenings try to prep some lunch items for the whole week

o    Have vegetables washed, cut and divided into bags/containers

o    Have fruit washed, cut and divided and laid out in an area where you can see – clear containers in the fridge

o    Have milk and water frozen.  This way you can use them as a freezer pack to keep foods cool till lunch time!

o    Pack the lunches the night before to alleviate the stress in the morning rush

o    For tips on keeping your lunches safe please refer to: Food Safety

 o    Have a visible calendar with the lunches so everyone knows whats on the menu and anyone in the family can start putting them together

o    Refer to our blog post on meal planning.

Think outside the sandwich!!

o    Lunches often get repetitive after a couple weeks or so especially if there is no plan in place. 

Creativity and planning can take out the stress and decrease the amount of protests. 

o    Children and Youth should be getting at least 3 out of the 4 food groups per meal

o    Check out websites, child friendly cookbooks, social media outlet: Pinterest, Facebook,Twitter, Instagram, etc.

Whole Grains	Fruits and Vegetables	Meat and Meat Alternatives	Milk and Milk Alternatives
Tortilla	Cut up vegetables	Egg/tuna	Milk
Pita	Cut up vegetables	Leftover chicken/pork/fish	Cheese
Mini bagel	Cut up fruit slices	Hard boiled egg/cream cheese	Yoghurt
Dinner roll	Fruit	Chili	Milk
Tortilla	Peppers/tomatoes/onions/salsa	Black beans/egg	Cheese
Crackers	Banana	Peanut butter or nut free pea butter	Yoghurt

Tips for healthy lunches

Cook Healthy

Recipes and an app: http://www.cookspiration.com/

www.dietitians.ca

Be careful of impostors

o    Prepackaged lunch items (snack packs) are often low in fibre, low in fruits and vegetables, high salt, highly processed meats and expensive

o    Teaching your children how to pack a healthy lunch, involving them in the process and being a good role model are great ways to incorporate healthy eating as a whole family

o    Avoid sending “treats” –

·      Try making their day with a note, colourful napkins, stickers, food cut into special shapes

·      Treats do not fall within Canada’s food guide and therefore replaces other important food groups required for healthy development and energy growing children need

Don’t forget about hydration

o    Normal Physical Activity Guidelines for children and youth are 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a day.  Water and white milk are adequate to maintain proper hydration.

§  Limit 100% unsweetened fruit juice to no more that ½ cup a day (avoid fruit beverages, punches, cocktails).

§  Sports drinks may be required if your children are engaged in competitive training over and beyond the 60 minutes physical activity guidelines.

§   For more information on why to limit juice and other age appropriate beverages please refer to Sugary Drink Sense

Following these tips and getting a jump on the school routine early, the 2,400 dreaded lunches will be one less thing to worry about and off your list!

Andrea Shackel is a Registered Dietitian at the Leduc Beaumont Devon Primary Care Network.