This post will soon appear on my blog on The Huffington Post.
Well, Felix’s first year of preschool is officially over. He’s now enjoying three weeks of day camp–a bizarre concept in New York City, where “camp” takes place on a rooftop playground on Park Avenue rather than in a freezing cold, leach-ridden lake as it did during my childhood.
I’m due to deliver my second baby in four short weeks, and the beginning of July will find us in my home-state of Vermont, where I’ll no doubt spend my time breastfeeding roughly 23 hours a day, and Felix will play with his grandparents and partake in another day camp (hopefully in a freezing cold, leach-ridden lake!).
One thing that all of these summer activities require is a packed lunch—all new territory for me (Felix has never been in school later than 11:45 a.m. until now).
As tempting as it is to stock up on Trader Joe’s packaged snacks to send with him every day, I am trying to do some real food, too—Felix will actually eat quinoa with butter and Tamari even if it’s cold, and tomorrow I’m even going to try a bit of steamed broccoli. Because I take such care to make sure his food is healthful, it would be counterproductive to pack it into containers that might leach phthalates and heavy metals into his lunch.
I know all about the problems with plastic storage containers, baggies, and cling wrap, and I recently learned that the plastic lunchboxes we all toted around in the 80’s might also be full of fun things like phthalates and lead. At home, we love glass food storage containers–but we all know that kids and glass is not always a good combo, so I needed a better option for Felix’s lunches.
Safe Lunchbox from Petite Collage
These eco-friendly lunch boxes feature a wipeable cotton canvas exterior coated with a protective solvent-free biodegradable laminate made from sugar cane.
Padded and insulated, they keep snacks and lunches tasting just right. The padded carry handle fits into small hands and an adjustable chest strap clips on and off easily. The interior mesh pocket is perfect for holding utensils and ice packs.
It gives me peace of mind to send Felix off to camp with (mostly) healthful lunch foods packed in a nontoxic lunchbox. Surely he’s trading quinoa for Oreos with some unsuspecting friend, but at least I won’t know about it.
I wish you all a sane summer!
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