Back-to-School Lunches: Part 1

The Most Important Ingredient Isn't in the Lunchbox

It's that time of year again.

Teachers are putting the finishing touches on lesson plans. Parents are making one last run through Target or Walmart for notebooks, pencils, and backpacks. Alarm clocks are being reset, sports schedules are filling the calendar...and kitchens across the country are once again becoming lunch-packing assembly lines.

Tomorrow, Christina and I will drop our youngest child off at college. After twenty-two years of raising three kids, we'll officially become empty nesters.

It's a strange feeling.

It also got me thinking about just how many lunches we've packed over the years.

Three kids.

Kindergarten through senior year.

Approximately 180 school days each year.

That works out to roughly 7,000 packed lunches.

2010 - the 1st year all 3 headed to preschool/school together - with packed lunches of course!

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Needless to say, we've learned a few things.

Over the next few weeks, I want to share some of the biggest lessons we learned along the way. Not because we packed perfect lunches, we certainly didn't. But because, like everything else in the kitchen, our understanding evolved over time.

Looking back, I think there are three keys to building a successful school lunch:

1. The social piece.

2. Getting your child to actually eat it.

3. The nutritional piece.

In that order. Most people start with nutrition.

Ironically, I think that's the last place to start.

Alyssa so excited to carry her own lunch box! Our Miss Independent!

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What Does It Mean to Be Nourished?

Packing our last year of 3 lunches!

One of the ideas I come back to over and over again is that humans are nourished by far more than nutrients.

If we truly want someone to be nourished, we have to consider not only their biological needs but also their emotional, cultural, social, familial, religious, ethical, and even political relationships with food.

Food has always been much more than fuel.

It's how we celebrate.

It's how we mourn.

It's how we express love.

It's how we build community.

It's how we communicate identity.

Trying to separate nutrition from those other aspects of eating simply doesn't reflect what it means to be human.

So while we often focus on protein, vitamins, fiber, healthy fats, or avoiding ultra-processed foods, and those things absolutely matter, they are only part of the picture.

Our goal isn't simply to feed our children.

Our goal is to help them be fully nourished.

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Prepping lunches in Ireland with a morning smoothie in the background

The Lunchroom Matters

I know many of us aspire to the beautiful stainless-steel bento box with the bamboo lid, reusable utensils wrapped in organic cotton, and carefully arranged homemade snacks worthy of Instagram.

There's nothing wrong with that.

But ask yourself a simple question:

What is the goal?

If the goal is for your child to be nourished, then the lunch has to work in the environment where it is actually eaten.

Imagine packing the healthiest lunch imaginable.

Everything is homemade. The ingredients are sourced from regenerative farms. The bread is naturally fermented sourdough. There's homemade fermented vegetables. A can of wild sardines. Maybe some liver pâté.

Nutritionally, it's fantastic.

But when lunchtime arrives, the sardines fill the cafeteria with their unmistakable aroma. Other students wrinkle their noses. Your child feels embarrassed, sits alone, and spends the rest of lunch wishing they had brought something different.

Did that lunch really accomplish what you intended?

I'm not so sure.

Nutrition matters.

But, so does belonging.

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Our Approach

Over the years, Christina and I settled on a very simple philosophy.

Make their lunches look familiar - but make every component the healthiest version possible.

When our kids opened their lunchboxes, what they saw looked remarkably similar to what their friends were eating.

Salads with homemade cheesesticks and homemade balsamic!

There was usually:

• a main item (often a sandwich, but sometimes yogurt, soup, or leftovers),

• a side (fruit, vegetables, or a cheese stick),

• something crunchy,

• and something sweet.

Nothing looked strange.

Nothing announced itself as "health food."

Nothing made our kids feel different.

The difference wasn't what we packed.

It was how we made it.

Sandwiches were built on genuine long-fermented sourdough bread with nitrate-free meats, real cheese, and seed-oil-free spreads.

The vegetables were often fermented.

The cheese sticks were made from real cheese.

The crunchy snack might be chips cooked in traditional fats or authentic sourdough pretzels.

And dessert? There was something sweet but it was homemade. A cookie, a brownie, a muffin, or another simple treat made with thoughtfully chosen ingredients. We didn't want our kids to feel like the "weird kids" who never got dessert, nor did we want them to develop an unhealthy relationship with sweets by treating them as forbidden. Instead, we wanted them to learn that dessert can have a place in a healthy diet when it's made from real ingredients and enjoyed as just one small part of a nourishing meal.

As our own knowledge grew, we eventually learned to make nearly every component ourselves, even the mozzarella cheese sticks.

But here's the good news:

You don't have to make everything from scratch to build a lunch like this!

Today there are wonderful options available. You simply need to know what to look for.

And that's exactly what we'll cover next week.

We'll walk through every component of the lunchbox, from bread and lunch meat to cheese sticks, chips, yogurt, snacks, and sweets and I'll show you how to navigate the grocery store to build the healthiest lunch possible, whether you make everything yourself or buy it.

Because the goal isn't perfection.

The goal is to nourish our kids.

Completely.

A note from our Alyssa’s school in Ireland