A Labor of Lunchy Love

What I remember from childhood about packing a lunch for school is this: My lunchbox—Strawberry Shortcake? Star Wars?—lost its whimsical allure far sooner than it had a right to, and fixing my lunch day after day became just another chore to be endured. I remember the nagging my poor mother had to do to keep me on task. Neither of us were pleased with the arrangement.

So when my 4-year-old asked me about packing her lunch for preschool a few months ago, instead of eating the school lunch, I hemmed, hawed, and white lied a little. “Lunchboxes are for big kids,” I declared.

I wanted to wait just a bit longer before we entered into years of lunchbox labor. Besides, dear me!, the things I recall putting in my childhood lunches: a carnival of packaged, processed foods! Lunchables, Cheetos, a Ding Dong or a Twinkie, Coca-Cola. Individually wrapped cheese slices. Maybe a carrot. Maybe.

Enter summer camp, circa 2011.

In the late hours of Monday night, I unearthed the email about this week’s camp and read, not without fright, “Please plan to pack a snack, a water bottle, and a lunch for the week.”

My “for big kids” cover was blown.

Obviously, I feed my child when she is at home—and not just lunch, but also breakfast, dinner, and a couple of snacks in between. She eats well, and it’s not an overly dramatic thing, so perhaps I have a little lunchbox PTSD.  Still, a mama’s gotta feed her baby, so I set about to master, or at least manage, the task of packing a lunch that would be healthy by my standards (my grown-up standards, not my childhood ones!) and delightful for my daughter.

We had on hand great containers, so that part was easy: Lunchbots, which we got from Sandy Cederbaum’s A Small Green Footprint, and ReSnackit bags that I first discovered on a trip to Chicago last year.

Before I knew it, I was wading into the world of bento boxes, the Japanese way of packing a lunch:

• I got the book Yum Yum Bento Box at Treehouse Kid & Craft, which also sells bento supplies.
• RookieMoms recommended the website Wendolonia and its Facebook page, and I was instantly addicted!
• And smart mama Lisa Dibble recommended Weelicious, which has a smorgasbord of lunch ideas.

My first day of bento box adventures went pretty well (I even made a rice ball bear! Ridiculously cute, admittedly fun). In fact, it may well inspire better cooking all-around at my house. While I’m working on that, I sought advice from a few mamas with some experience preparing lunch to go. Their kids, toddlers to young school children, are fans of everything from the basics to the all-grown-up:

• Fruit (cut up and packed in Tupperware or equivalent), a sandwich, something like a granola bar for the snack, and something sweet like a Hershey's Kiss.
• A "build your own" lunch includes sandwich fixings (ham, cheese, lettuce, cucumbers, et cetera) that are packed in a little bag with the bread kept separate. A handful of nuts is a big hit (if the school or camp hasn’t ruled them out because of nut allergies) especially if they're still in the shell. For carrots, the novelty of getting the carrot with the green still attached is more fun than prepared baby carrots. Same with celery. Finally, for a little treat, toss in some raisins and M&Ms.
• Laughing Cow cheese wedges are great with pretzels or crackers.
• Hummus and carrots or cucumbers. (Kids can’t get enough of dipping!)

Lunch, it turns out, isn't so scary after all. And with no Twinkies required, it feels much more like a nourishing labor of love.

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Jennifer Derryberry Mann blogs about navigating the labyrinth of motherhood one breath at a time at Mamahhh.com. Her Nurture + Frolic column appears biweekly on Athens Patch.
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