Kid-safe, eco-friendly lunch box options
For many parents, the school lunch dilemma is as much about the food containers, as it is the food. Some kid-safe, eco-friendly options are catching on like wildfire.
In the process of creating interesting menus for their school lunch delivery business, Lunchbox Leverage owners Neil and Emily Dexter of Seattle tackled a challenge even greater than the food- how to pack the lunches without packing in extra waste.
"I needed to find lunch boxes that were going to be fun for kids- easy to open, compartmentalized and have safe plastic," Emily said. "We actually bought several different kinds of containers."
A brand called Easy Lunchboxes came out on top. Easy Lunchboxes were developed by a California mother who wanted reusable, plastic containers without the phthalates, bpa, and other toxic chemicals linked to developmental and reproductive problems in kids. Her dishwasher-safe containers are such a hit- they've been picked up by the giant of online shopping.
"Last year when we bought, we cleaned out the stock. When I called her this year to get more, she said, 'I'm ready to go! Just got picked up by Amazon!' She's doing great," Emily said. The cost is about $14 for a set of four.
Emily says she had her nephews test different utensils to see which ones they thought were the most fun and easy to use. The Dexters settled on BPA-free sporks, a spoon-fork combination also popular with campers, by a company called Light My Fire.
The dishwasher-safe sporks sell for $4 to $7 at outdoor equipment stores like REI, or online, from Industrial Revolution based in Redmond.
For snacks and sandwiches, there are compostable, biodegradable, re-sealable bags made from wood pulp. Emily found them on a website called compostable.com.
They're available in a variety of sizes and quantities. The site currently offers a pack of 25 sandwich bags for about $5.
In the process of creating interesting menus for their school lunch delivery business, Lunchbox Leverage owners Neil and Emily Dexter of Seattle tackled a challenge even greater than the food- how to pack the lunches without packing in extra waste.
"I needed to find lunch boxes that were going to be fun for kids- easy to open, compartmentalized and have safe plastic," Emily said. "We actually bought several different kinds of containers."
A brand called Easy Lunchboxes came out on top. Easy Lunchboxes were developed by a California mother who wanted reusable, plastic containers without the phthalates, bpa, and other toxic chemicals linked to developmental and reproductive problems in kids. Her dishwasher-safe containers are such a hit- they've been picked up by the giant of online shopping.
"Last year when we bought, we cleaned out the stock. When I called her this year to get more, she said, 'I'm ready to go! Just got picked up by Amazon!' She's doing great," Emily said. The cost is about $14 for a set of four.
Emily says she had her nephews test different utensils to see which ones they thought were the most fun and easy to use. The Dexters settled on BPA-free sporks, a spoon-fork combination also popular with campers, by a company called Light My Fire.
The dishwasher-safe sporks sell for $4 to $7 at outdoor equipment stores like REI, or online, from Industrial Revolution based in Redmond.
For snacks and sandwiches, there are compostable, biodegradable, re-sealable bags made from wood pulp. Emily found them on a website called compostable.com.
They're available in a variety of sizes and quantities. The site currently offers a pack of 25 sandwich bags for about $5.
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