Looking for ways to make school lunches more exciting for your kids? We hear you. Here are 8 ideas that may help your child be more interested in eating their lunch at school.
Planning and packing school lunches for your kids can quickly become repetitive, especially if your child is regularly coming home with a barely-touched lunch box.
Sometimes all it takes is a little more variation in your approach. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go to the store and stock up on all brand-new things, either.
Here are some ideas to mix things up a bit and help entice your kiddo to eat more at school!
1. Create a Fun Theme
Turn lunches into mini-adventures by creating themed meals like “Taco Tuesday” or “Rainbow Day,” where each food is a different color. Themes make lunches more engaging and help kids try new foods. We like adding fun, kid-friendly plastic picks in themes like fruits, veggies, and dinosaurs to help them pick up tofu cubes or berries.
2. Include DIY Elements
There’s nothing quite like a homemade “lunchable” in childhood! Add build-your-own items like cracker sandwiches, tiny tortilla wraps, or even mini pizzas on bagels. Letting kids assemble their food gives them a sense of control that may help them want to eat their creations.
3. Use Fun Shapes and Cutouts
Use cookie cutters to shape sandwiches, fruits, and veggies into fun designs like stars, hearts, or animals. This adds a playful element to even simple foods. Sometimes we’ll use a heart-shaped cookie cutter on a PB&J sandwich and it makes all the difference.
4. Add a Dip
Kids love dipping! Include a small container of hummus, guacamole, cashew ranch dip, or yogurt for veggies, fruits, or crackers to make mealtime at school more interactive and enjoyable.
5. Mix Up Textures and Colors
Keep lunches visually and texturally interesting by mixing crunchy items (like carrots, crackers, or dehydrated lentil snaps) with soft ones (like tofu, cheese, or pudding). A colorful mix makes the meal more inviting.
6. Surprise with Notes or Stickers
Slip a little note, joke, or fun sticker into their lunchbox to add a personal touch. It’s a sweet surprise that can make lunchtime more special and remind your kiddo that you’re thinking of them when they’re at school.
7. Get Creative with Bento Boxes
Bento boxes make it easy to pack a variety of small portions of different foods to give your child more options. Fill compartments with a mix of protein, fruits, veggies, and a treat to keep it exciting and balanced.
8. Add Something Sweet
We don’t push daily dessert on our kids but we absolutely believe in normalizing sweets. This helps take them off of their pedestal in the food hierarchy and ultimately makes sugary foods less appealing and craze-inducing as kids get older. Pair something small, like gummies or a piece of chocolate, alongside the more nutritious foods in their lunch box.
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Chime In: What other tips do you have to make school lunches more enticing for kiddos? Drop a comment below!
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