If you’re looking for a reason to pack a healthier lunch for your kids, look no further than Produce for Kids’ “Power Your Lunchbox”. In its fourth year, the back-to-school program is designed to provide parents with all the tools they need to be lunch-packing wizards.
Each year Produce for Kids invites parents to take the #PowerYourLunchbox Pledge, an oath to pack a healthy lunch for their children. Every person who makes a pledge is entered into a daily contest to win the new illustrated book from acclaimed children’s author Eric Carle. And to top it off: For every pledge it receives through Sept. 22, Produce for Kids will make a collective $1 donation to Feeding America, the nation’s largest non-profit hunger relief organization. (During the 2016-2017 school year, 43,068 families and classrooms pledged to eat a healthier lunch, helping the organization raise 473,748 meals for families in need through Feeding America.) Crispy Green is one of 12 major sponsors of the Power Your Lunchbox Pledge program.
Produce for Kids knows that making a nutritious lunch five days a week for an entire school year isn’t easy, and so it’s built a PowerYourLunchbox program that’s chockablock with fun, easy-to-make recipes that taste and look good. Here are just a few of the 50+ ideas it’s assembled for you to try, bound to appeal to the most finicky eater!
Healthy Lunch Ideas from the Power Your Lunchbox Program
Switch up your sandwich game with pinwheels. Bite-sized and easily packable for a lunch kids won’t be able to resist! The filling can be made in advance and the pinwheels assembled the night before or in the morning. Add chopped onion, celery or carrots for added crunch and veggies.
It’s simple – roll, cut and add sliced strawberries and kiwi for added flair. These sushi rolls will keep in lunchboxes until lunchtime. If your school is a nut-free zone, swap the peanut butter for soybutter or sunbutter instead!
A bagged salad, leftover rotisserie chicken and a few other simple ingredients makes this lunch come together in no time. This recipe packs perfectly in lunchboxes or layered in a mason jar for mom or dad.
Get creative with a set of cookie cutters and plating and watch kids gobble up their lunch. For this Dinosaur Lunch, a clementine becomes the sun, a little ranch dressing for the clouds, and broccoli for grass and trees for your dino sandwiches to eat!
Kids will get a kick out of these fruit & veggies caterpillar snacks! Perfect for a hands-on after school snack or a fun lunchbox idea.