School Lunch

Each year for Earth Day, we try try make one significant change in our family to become more eco-friendly. Although I have been using cloth shopping bags for years and even use them at non-grocery stores (Old Navy, Gap, LOFT, Gymboree, Target, Hardware store and even restaurants - much to the horror of my teenager!) we were still pretty big consumers of plastic baggies, especially as my germ-o-phobic personality would never allow me to wash & re-use them as I know some people do. I decided our change for 2010 was to ditch the baggies!

I initially tried 2 types of sandwich / snack bags. Here they are with why I love them ----

Snack Taxi.

My total fave and I am in LOVE. Their sizes are just perfect. The sandwich bag can nicely fit in a sandwich without having to smush the sides, yet not leaving so much room that it comes apart and the filling falls out. I often send a thick slice of homemade bread with a thermos of soup for lunch - and even if they bring the bread home (having not eaten it) it is still nice and soft and not dried out at all.

The snack size are great for a substantial snack and even fit the medium sized rice cakes (the one's that Stew's or Fairway make.) I love all the colors and cute designs. The best thing about these bags? They are completely washable & durable. If they've just been used for crackers or bread or carrots or something NOT messy / wet / potentially cross contaminating - I turn them inside out & wipe them with a damp cloth. They dry in minutes and I pop them right back in the drawer to use again. If they do need a "real" washing I either scrub them with some dish soap & rinse or turn them inside out (attaching the Velcro so it won't stick to other laundry items) and wash them in the washing machine & then air dry. A few have accidentally gone through the dryer and come out fine, but I prefer to air dry them.

In dozens of washings they have never lost their shape, faded or had stitching come undone. We have been using these for 6 month now and they still look as great and sturdy as the day we got them.

The only drawback to these is that they are not really waterproof. Jacob will not eat carrots he deems "old" which pretty much means a tiny bit dry or just not cold & crispy. I try to send them to school in a little bit of cold water to keep them fresh - but the water does soak right through the bags. Easy fix, I bought a few very small BPA free, recyclable plastic containers to send watery carrots or celery in and save the bags for other items.

Lunchskins

Truly, I bought these mostly because of the shark & crab prints knowing how happy it would make Jacob at lunchtime to pull them out.

I have not been as happy with these as I was the snack taxi's. They are very cute and they are more "waterproof" than the snack taxi's - but still not completely. They seal a bit better with the Velcro all the way across the top and they have some really great designs.

The drawbacks to me have been that the "sandwich" size really doesn't accommodate a sandwich. It's a really tight fit. They've been washed a few times too and the darling designs have really worn and they now look pretty beat-up and old.

I do actually like the look of the smaller sized snack bag (for when you just want to send a small snack) but cannot vouch for it as I only bought their bigger size to try.

I send my kids with a thermos of soup or leftovers from the previous nights dinner a lot. Yet, I can't bear the thought of them using plastic cutlery, so I was sending my stainless steel one's. Until I noticed that I was starting to run low on cutlery ....

I know there's a lot of controversy out there over how compostable these items are - but I figure even if it takes them 20 years to break down .... still better than plastic! I think there is probably a range in how Eco-friendly these products really are. I keep meaning to call Stone Barns & see which brand they use in the cafe ... because I'm sure they've already done the research to see which is the best!

I have been running these through the dishwasher (mine heats to 160 degrees) and they have held up well. I plan on washing and re-using as long as we can .... and if they get lost or accidentally thrown in the trash in the school cafeteria I won't be devastated!

So, now I can feel as good about HOW my kids take their lunch to school as I do what they're eating!