Nutritionally, adding a slice of cheese to the sanga is a big improvement.
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2025
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Good enough is partly what they will eat. You can pack a 10 course seafood banquet and my kids probably wouldn't eat but would eat the hell out of a Vegemite and avocado sandwich
Marmite and white bread is the lowest quality lunch possible.
An apple is ok but there should be a variety of fruit throughout the week.
OK I admit, the only reason I'm posting this is because earlier I was making a Marmite sandwich and banana lunchbox and apparently that's not enough.
The idea of putting chicken in a lunchbox to sit at room temperature all day just doesn't feel right.
Any suggestions for what to put in a school lunch that doesn't come pre-packaged?
Yeah the food safety aspect of packed lunches is really another reason why providing them at the place of learning is better for everybody.
Having said that, I sometimes feel that western food safety standards are overly broad most likely due to litigation in the former leader of the free world. Take rice for example, its a huge no-no in the west to even contemplate letting rice sit around warm after its cooked, and there are some reasons for why, but I've talked to plenty of people who grew up in south-east asia where that was common.
Probably the best home-school-lunch-makers answer to food safety & variety from protein etc is cured meats :) Get your kids a prosciutto sandwich everyone!
Well this is going to turn a bit dark but processed meats are loaded with nitrates (normally sodium nitrate, listed as "Preservative (250)"), which is one of very few things on the WHOs "definitely causes cancer" list. So I try to avoid it if possible.
Outside of occupational risks (and biological ones, like HPV), the "definitely causes cancer" list is very short. The main ones are basically smoking, alcohol, and processed meat.
So it's not a case of "everything causes cancer" and more a case of specifically avoiding processed meat in lunch boxes/in general.
The list is here: https://monographs.iarc.who.int/list-of-classifications
Group 1 is the definitely causes cancer group. I find it easiest to download and filter in Excel.
The list of groups is here: https://monographs.iarc.who.int/agents-classified-by-the-iarc/
Yeah, IIRC the science on that & the dosage required isn't quite as settled as the WHO warning suggests. But in any case, you can always cure your own using just salt! I think mostly the nitrate is there to keep it pink.
You can buy bacon without nitrates, but the nitrates are the yummy bit... it does make it pink but if you taste bacon with no added nitrates it's not the same.
In terms of dosage... this isn't really a case of benefits outweighing risks. I'm not aware of any health benefits of eating highly processed meat (that you couldn't get from the unprocessed equivalent). Easiest to minimise consumption to reduce the risk. I'll still eat it on a burger in the same way I'll still have the occasional beer even though alcohol is a known carcinogen, but I don't want processed meat to be an everyday food.
When i was a kid, my mom usually made me some "sandwiches" with proper bread, not the white paper sheets. Cheese, some veggies, often various organic nut spreads. Hazelnut was a favorite of mine with mashed banana, or just a whole banana or other fruit as dessert.
I was raised as a vegetarian by a very health conscious mother, for context. That being said this was within the german education system, where especially young kids don't have school all day around here, so this is more of a second breakfast than a proper lunch.
When i was a kid, my mom usually made me some “sandwiches” with proper bread, not the white paper sheets.
We only have grainy bread, my kids have been raised on it as being normal. The closest they get to white bread is the oat one, or buns/etc which tend to only come in white.
The kids aren't allowed peanut butter at school, not sure if things that look like peanut butter but aren't (other nut spreads) are an issue or not. I've avoided them to stay well clear.
I've done carrot or cucumber sticks at times, but I make the lunch the night before and I think they dry out a bit by lunchtime the next day.
You can get wide mouth thermoses from briscoes/m10 etc. Then you can send yesterday’s leftovers for lunch.
We send ours with curries, spagbol, chilli, dumplings etc. anything that can stay moist and warm.
I like the idea, one day when they actually eat my (delicious) cooking reliably maybe I can consider this 😆
Hard boiled eggs, can of sardines or tuna, etc
Oh eggs is a good one. I don't think they are old enough to open a can without injuring someone, though.
My usual:
- Peanut butter and jam sandwich on multi grain.
- Beans (garbanzo or a melange
start with dried and cook in instant pot or other pressure cooker)
- Fruit (banana, strawberries, maybe other berries)
- Veggies (carrot sticks, broccoli, cucumber)
Sometimes throw in some rice, a mandarin orange, or just leftovers from dinner. I'm vegetarian so the kiddo doesn't get meat in their packed lunch (they can eat whatever they want though, and do at restaurants).
@Dave I search photos of lunchbox ideas for inspiration and ignore anthing cut into pretty shapes or Instagram fodder. Wraps and pita are great for a change. Leftover rice, potato or pasta salad. Crackers & cheese. Muffins straight from freezer are gold! Fresh fruit or tinned. Celery & apple has been a hit. I provide the options and we all prep lunchboxes at the same time. Gel icepack inside an insulated bag works ok. Freezable lunchbag (on sale) has been fantastic.
Almost every food has enough protein per calorie so if you’re worried about protein, that basically means they are not getting enough calories and you can just pack more.
you can put an ice pack in with the chicken, you know.
Hmm, that's a good thought but my kids have these compartmented lunch boxes they got from their grandmother. Not a lot of room for an ice pack. I think I've heard of special ones designed for lunch boxes, I might look into that. Thanks for the reminder!
We tried various "lunchboxes" but they all suck, we reverted to what was used in the 80's and 90's; just a 2l ice cream container.
Reusable bag for sandwich, a little container for pretzels/nuts/dates...whatever, a reusable squeeze pouch for yougurt, a couple of bits of fruit. The compartmented lunchboxes are often just the wrong shape.
I use the small thin gel ice packs that are like ziplock bags. They're thin and somewhat flexible even when frozen. easy to tuck one over a sandwich
Couldn't you just freeze a zip lock bag of appropriate size and lay on top?
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This lot, honestly.
With regard to the school lunches, all they had to do was ... nothing! Maybe increase buying power a bit to reduce costs slightly, but the school lunches were lauded as being fantastic.
Not much different from the ferry fiasco.
$300 million to cancel the project, it would have been cheaper to take delivery then sell them.
Exactly, and now we will pay more for less, won't have rail enabled ferries (fuck SI rail I guess), and will have to replace them sooner because they won't fit growing demand.
Yes, that's fine because it is better than no lunch at all.
No, it's not fine if the unit cost to whomever is paying for it is excessive. Which it will be for whichever pork barrel government contractor is supplying it.
What he means is parents should make that sandwich so the unit cost of individual househoulds making one off marmite sandwiches is about as expensive as it could possibly get.
And yes, its better than no lunch but the whole point of the lunch program was (before Seymour enshittified it) to provide one guaranteed healthy & hearty meal a day because we know (and have known for decades) that it improves education & life outcomes.
Our typical school lunch boxes are filled with options from:
- ham and cheese sandwich
- luncheon sandwhich
- ham and cheese and tomato tortilla wrap
And
- apple
- sliced kiwifruit
- banana
- some repulsive fruit stick things
- salami of some kind
And
- chips, crisps or similar (mini bag)
- freshly cooked pikelets
- less freshly made mini muffins
- mini cup cake
Occasionally leftover dinner in a fat thermos.
I'm forgetting some things as it's usually spouse-unit-01's task in the morning to prepare these.
Thanks for the ideas!
Yesterday I put two marmite sandwiches and a banana in one of the kid's lunch boxes and it came home with one sandwich and a banana... so maybe your kids eat more than mine, or maybe that's a sign my lunches aren't up to scratch.
I wonder if your kids are trading or something?
I grew up in an era where most of us had two sandwiches and if ever I got anything too exotic for my tastes (like, luncheon sausage) I would try to exchange it for a marmite or a peanut butter.
I can't remember what age I started not taking lunch to school, but it was before high school. Before that, yeah, two sandwiches. I never got little packets of chips or things like that as a kid, not sure when that got more common.
I wonder if your kids are trading or something?
For sure. I see empty chip packets come home in their lunch boxes that I never put there. Sometimes a muesli bar wrapper or roll up wrapper. Not sure what they are trading, fruit and sandwiches doesn't seem exciting enough to entice the other kid,
Idk, anything for novelty? If another kid gets chips or roll ups a lot they might want a marmite sandwich?
Yeah chips weren't the norm at my primary either. Sandwiches, fruit, those mini packets of cinderella raisins. The technology of lunch has moved at a clipping pace by the sounds of some of the recipes in here.
Idk, anything for novelty? If another kid gets chips or roll ups a lot they might want a marmite sandwich?
Yeah true. I refuse to buy those little bags of chips that contain more plastic bag mass than chips.
those mini packets of cinderella raisins
Ooh I forgot about those! The dentist told me not to give the kids dried fruit haha.
Microplastic and saturated fats, lunch of champions. /s
I guess dried fruit is way more sugary than fruit fruit?
The explanation was that yes dried fruit (all fruit) has a lot of sugar, and dried fruit in particular sticks to your teeth. They said adults tend to pick at this with their tongue and clean it off their teeth but kids don't and it just sits there.
Makes sense. I would think that would exclude those sticky roll up things too.
Yeah I presume so. My kids aren't a fan of them anyway. I think they aren't as sugary as they used to be.
We've found little rhyme not reason for what comes home or not ;-)
What's a marmite sandwich? It looks like asphalt 😅 !
BTW it seems it's in New Zealand.
Marmite is a yeast spread. It's a classic spread made from by-products of beer brewing.
It's (very) savoury. A nice alternative to all the sweet spreads. It also has a strong flavour so while NZ kids grow up on it, if you haven't then spread it very thinly (I'd suggest butter the bread first).
Australians will also be familiar with Vegemite. Same thing (yeah yeah).
It's simultaneously revolting and delicious. Definitely an acquired taste.
What scares me slightly is the older I get, the thicker I spread the marmite.
British Marmite and NZ Marmite are quite different from each other, so Vegemite is clearly still in the grouping (and you could say is similar to British Marmite).
Maybe taste wise, but texture wise Vegemite is closer to NZ Marmite. UK Marmite is very syrupy.
Apparently for those with distinguished palates Promite is the best of the bunch. I wouldn't know i'm not that big of a fan of it.
Hmm the UK Marmite I've had wasn't very syrupy. Well, I haven't had it except once a long time ago so maybe it was and I don't remember. Or maybe there are different brands.
Also great for dipping cheese sticks into.
Marmite and cheese is a match made in heaven
Sounds similar to what my kids often get. It's not that they couldn't have more or better, just that it is all they're willing to eat.
Obviously not. You absolutely need some protein and vegetables.
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