With our tips on how to reduce school lunch food waste, you'll have empty lunchboxes and less food in the bin!5 tips to reduce school lunch food waste

It’s that time of year again - the young ones are back to school and you’re rushing to buy those new shirts, donate last year’s shoes and wrap books for every subject under the sun. 

If you’ve got a renewed vigour for fighting food waste, thinking about half-full lunchboxes returning to your kitchen at the end of day may be inspiring some dread. Worry not - we’re here to give you some back to school tips on what you can do to reduce food waste when it comes to school lunches!

Our tips on how to reduce school lunch food waste

Reuse what comes home in those lunchboxES

Depending on what’s been left in your little one’s lunchbox, it might be good to go for tomorrow’s lunch. You can refresh chopped veg by placing it in cold water for a few minutes to give it its crunch back and a leftover sandwich can be toasted for dinner or for weekend lunch if its Friday!

If veg has gone a bit soft or soggy in your child’s school lunch, you could use it to bulk up dinner one of the evenings by adding it to your spaghetti bolognese, stew or soup.

Give your kids what they eat!

It can be tempting to send your kids to school with super nutritious meals that they don’t usually eat at home, but more often that not, you’ll find they won’t touch it and will opt for their other snacks.

The best way to reduce food waste, for kids or for adults, is to buy what you actually eat and eat what you buy! If you have picky eaters in your house, test out easy-to-make, nutritious lunch items on different days and keep an eye on what they’re eating. In the short-term, it’ll take you more time and effort but long-term, you’ll save money and help to save the planet.

Here are some ideas you can try:

• Hummus and veggie crudites such as cucumber, carrot, peppers, radishes or any raw veg your child loves
• Veggie wraps with protein of your choice and cheese
• Cold noodles and thinly sliced veg with a honey-soy sauce dressing - best for slightly more adventurous kids
• Fruit and nut flapjacks
• Mini veg-packed frittatas which are easy to prep many in advance using a muffin tin
• “Picky bits” such as proteins, cut-up veg and dips
• Yoghurt and fruit - you can try different fruits over to time to find the big winner
• Pasta salad with your kid’s favourite sauce
• Sun-seed butter sandwich - sunflower seed butter is a perfect nut-free alternative to peanut butter
• Salted edamame - perfect for boosting protein and easily found in Asian grocers

By testing what works, you can reduce school lunch food waste little by little!

Use dinner leftovers

By using what wasn’t eaten at dinner time in your child’s lunchbox, you can help to reduce your household food waste in its entirety. A win-win-win!

Leftover pasta and sauce can be great in a pasta salad, a cheesy baked casserole or fish goujons can become a wrap or sandwich filling, sweet potato fries and meatballs are a treat the next day with a dip and steamed veg can become a dip in itself with garlic, herbs and the right seasonings… Simply give them a blitz and add a bit of greek yoghurt.

Help your kids to understand food waste

This is potentially the most difficult tip on this list but helping your kids to understand why you’re avoiding food waste can get them on board with telling you what foods they like and don’t like in their lunchbox.

Explaining what goes into food waste can be a great place to start including:

• Water - ⅔ of ALL water is used to make food
• Work - 7% of workers in Ireland work in the agriculture and food sector
• Land - Over ⅓ of the world’s land is used for agriculture
• Energy - ⅓ of the world’s energy is used for food production
• Soil nutrients - Making food the way that we do now damages our soil

Ireland currently wastes 1 million tonnes of food waste… That’s enough food waste to fill Croke Park two and a half times! By clarifying the scale of the problem, your kids may understand better why it's best to not throw food in the bin.

GIY work to promote food empathy in children by selling GROWBoxes that allow little ones to grow their own food so that they can understand what goes into food production. If you’ve got hands-on learners in your home, you can find out more here.

Show your kids how to make their own lunch

If your kids are old enough, giving them the responsibility of making their own lunches can help them to feel independent and encourage them to reduce food waste.

Once your children know how to balance protein, fibre, vitamins and carbs, they’re good to get started. You can create a list of food options from what is in the fridge and help them where they need based on a schedule that works for you.

If they really get in the swing of it…. Hey, it’s something else off your plate!

At the end of the day, we all know it can be challenging being a parent so cut yourself some slack. Any amount of school lunch food waste that is repurposed is helpful to our planet!

FURTHER READING ABOUT FOOD WASTE

Should you keep fruit and veg in the fridge?