I'm always trying to lessen my impact on the environment, and thanks to an article in Mothering, I will be sending my daughter to school with a bento-box this year! Every morning I would pack Nina's lunch using some plastic baggies, at least two. So in a 185 day school year, two baggies a day equals 370 plastic baggies! If I continued the trend with my youngest daughter, it would be 740 a year. Over their entire school career it would equal 17,760 little baggies!!!!
It always bothered me, packing her lunch with those things, but it never occurred to me to search for another way. There would be one bag with pretzels, one with sliced apples, a container of yogurt etc. I would put as many things in re-usable containers like her sandwich, and she always takes a cloth napkin, but those snack baggies were always on my grocery list. Thankfully the bento-box comes in pink! For a second I thought well, what if she thinks it's 'uncool', or too different because she is the only one? But this is my daughter, and all I had to tell her is that it is better for Mother Earth, and she says, "Cool". Hopefully, when she goes to lunch, and opens her neat little lunch box kids will be impressed, and want to follow in her foot steps. I want to raise a leader, and a conscious one at that. So far she has impressed me with her compassion for the planet and all her creatures. My girls are always quick to notice trash on the ground, and think nothing of picking it up, and putting it where it belongs. I am one proud Mama, and happy to know that I am doing at least a few things right. :) Read more about waste-free lunches here.
