So my daughter is in school now, which is a topic unto itself that I promise to address another day, and every day she needs to bring lunch.
Lunch!
I grew up in the day of brown bag lunches. You’d sit in the cafeteria and everyone had a brown paper bag, with plastic bags inside that were filled with their assorted foods, from sandwiches to Doritos and Oreos.
Except for me.
My mom has always been a consummate reuser, reducer, and recycler. She was buying Seventh Generation products before they were mainstream. She separates clothing tags (the paper part and the plastic part) and puts them in the recycle bin. So when we were kids, there were no wasteful brown bags and plastic bags. We had lunchpacks–large, bulky, cold-safe containers that would fit smaller containers of our assorted foods (and no, I never got Doritos or Oreos either). As a seventh-grader, nothing was more embarrassing.
But as happens so often, the older I get, the more I realize how right my mom is. And so does the rest of the world. Not only are reusable lunchbags the latest trend (and they’re SO much smaller than they used to be), but even those small plastic bags are no longer the rage. People are using reusable snack bags. In fact, at parent orientation at my daughter’s school, we got a gift at the end–a large snack bag filled with coupons to neighborhood stores.
I’m a recycler too (as much as you can be one in New York City, with our limited recycling) but I didn’t do a good job of getting ready for packing lunches every day. I’m now determined to stock up on some of those excellent reusable snack bags and containers. I’ll save the world, follow the Jewish value of
bal taschit
(do not destroy), and what’s more, my daughter will be a trendsetter at the lunch table. (As much as anyone can be a trendsetter when she’s 3, that is.)
If you want to take a step toward bal taschit and save the world too, here’s a few of my favorite places to find some fabulous reusable bags. And did I mention that these are super cute, too? Snack Taxi, adorable bags starting at $7.95, Itzy Ritzy with cute bags starts at $9.99, and Lunchskins reusable sandwich bags starting at $8.95.
