How To Pack A School Lunch Box For Kids

When packing a school lunch box for kids, you need to put the following things in a lunch box:

1) Main lunch meal

This is the main meal that your child will eat for lunch – for example a sandwich or a slice of pizza.  Need more ideas on what to give your child for lunch?  See 16 ideas for kids school lunches.

You can put the lunch meal in a plastic ziploc bag or a plastic container with a lid.

2) Snack/Dessert

This is little something in addition to the main meal.  Don’t pack any cookies, candies or other junk food – the kids will eat them instead of lunch!  What I do is I pack FRUIT.  It can be apple slices, pineapple slices, melon slices, orange slices, berries, whole apple, pear, a banana or any other fruit your child likes.  Fruits are tasty, easy to eat and good for you.

3) Drink

Don’t waste your money on juice boxes or milk boxes!  Just pour juice or milk into a reusable bottle.  You’ll save tons of money by buying big bottles of milk and juice as opposed to the individual-portioned cartons.  Be smart – there are better things to spend money on than a smaller-sized version of the same thing.

4) Napkins

Pack a few napkins for your child to wipe their hands and face after lunch.

5) Utensils (if needed)

If the meal is something that needs to be eaten with fork and spoon (as opposed to just hands), don’t forget to pack the necessary utensils.  You can pack the plastic fork and spoon to be tossed, or the real ones to be brought back home.

6) Ice pack

To ensure that your child’s lunch stays fresh, don’t forget to pack the ice pack in the lunch box.  I like to put the ice pack inside a zipped plastic bag before putting it in a lunch box.  Use the reusable ice pack that you can just put back into the freezer once your child is back home from school.  In case you forget to put the ice pack back, have an extra ice pack around in the freezer.