Inspiration in a Lunch Box

Eliza Clark
August 20, 2012

Are you looking forward to packing lunch for your child every weekday this year as much as we are? We thought so. That extra fifteen-minute task during the wee hours of the morning prior to racing to catch the school bus is one of the true joys of parenthood (not so much).

Clearly it’s time to give ourselves a serious pep talk regarding early birds who pack the most nutritious lunches in order to give their kids the best possible start in life....

Or, we could just go on a shopping spree.  A lunch box, shopping spree, that is.

This is not as crazy as it might sound.  In fact, as our recent research has revealed, there are some truly inspiring lunchboxes out there.  But are there any lunch boxes to make you want to get up in the morning?

Take a look:

The same old same old sandwich has long been the bane of school kids and their parents.  In the past few years, parent lunch-packers have been able to get much more creative and healthful in their offerings with the rising popularity of bento boxes.  Reusable, washable containers of various sizes accommodate veggies and fruit, dips, noodles, wraps, salads, rice, sliced meats and just about any food you can imagine (even cookies!).  When the kids come home from school pop the whole thing in the dishwasher and start again tomorrow.

The Lunch Bots company has an even more versatile and long-lasting bento-style line, made of stainless steel with colorful, leak-proof tops (pictured above). If anything can make you feel hip and with-it while packing your kid’s lunch, this line is it. How adorable is that cat sandwich?

Or maybe you are just looking for a little inspiration—a lunch box to make you smile rather than scowl as you go about your fun morning of routine of dragging sleepy kids out of bed, pulling combs through tangled hair, and sending everyone off to conquer the day. For me, last year, that lunch box was the owl incarnation of the exceptionally cute Skip Hop Zoo insulated lunch bags line.  I just loved sending my preschooler off with an owl-full of lunch every day.

For slightly older and more sophisticated kiddos, we also find the Land’s End lunch container line to be aesthetically pleasing and practical at the same time, with designs to satisfy most kids’ tastes. Whether our lunches can satisfy their developing taste buds is an altogether different matter.