09/18/2009
Why Do I Bento?
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1.  Health. Better control over your childs diet. You know what’s in it, and can make sure you are packing a nutritionly sound meal that your child will eat. You can’t necessarily count on your school providing that. My kidlet is only in Kindergarten and although there is a healthy option each day, there is also always a junk food option (deep fried nuggets, fries, pizza, etc). When the kidlet was our foster child he was in early head start and I learned that federal guidelines say that a little ranch dressing provided as a dip counts as a dairy serving. Boggle.
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2. Cost. Packing a lunch is almost always cheaper than a school lunch.
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3. It’s a “Green†Solution. It has been estimated that on average a school-age child using a disposable lunch generates 67 pounds of waste per school year. That equates to 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for just one average-size elementary school. Packing a bento box means no plastic baggies, aluminum foil or other excessive packaging to go into the landfills. If you send a cloth napkin instead of paper (and the japanese make a lot of cute little “Oshibori†cloths for their lunch packing, so you can find something that appeals to your child, although you likely will have to shop ebay or the internet to find one if you happen to live in the US, as I do), and rely on a reusable drink container, that’s even better.Â
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4. Overcoming Picky Eating. Kids love colorful, attractive foods. It’s often more appealing for a picky child to eat something they normally would avoid when its shaped like a smiling animal or fashioned in the form of their favorite toy. A sandwich in a bag smushed under an apple in the bottom of the lunch bag sure doesn’t look very good next to a candy bar in its shiny wrapper or the deep fried chicken nuggets shaped like stars.
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5. Self Esteem. It’s a daily reminder that they are worth the effort of packing such a cool lunch. It’s not the food that is the love (I’m completely against the idea of food as reward or pushing food to show you care), but that you are willing to spend the time for them. My son also LOVES the attention that he gets from him lunches. Other teachers come by each day to see what he has. The kids in class think his lunches are super cool. It’s a little thing, but it makes him feel good. I remember that every time I think about sending a plain jane lunch =)
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6. Weight Control. Bento boxes are the perfect meal size (I know they seem small, but you pack them tightly, that’s the whole point!) so your child gets just how much they should be eating.
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7. It’s fun. I am a creative person. But I don’t always have time or space to dig out all my scrapbooking materials or to sit and work on a cross stitch. Creating a bento is a creative outlet that I can start and finish in an hour (usually much less than an hour).
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You don’t have to run out and buy nori and furikake and ongiri shapers to make an attractive bento lunch. Your normal every day lunch – sandwich, fruit, veggies (and maybe a snack food) will fit into a box just fine. Take the dinosaur sandwich lunch. The sandwiches were made in 10 seconds, using a 3 dollar crust-cutter found at targets, walmartss, even some groceries. Cheese suns were punched using a small cookie cutter, and the rest is just fruit and veggies (It was too much broccoli, and next time I’m pack less of that, but you get the idea!). There’s a little ranch dressing in the apple container, but you could easily send it on the side in a small tupperware (which is what I do now, those little mayo cups don’t hold enough dip).
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You certainly don’t have to wrap them in a scarf like the japanese do. I stick my sons bento in a regular cute insulated lunch bag along with his ice pack, stainless drink container, a side of dressing, occasionally a treat that won’t fit in the bento (like a gogurt, which I hate for the packaging, but he loves, so I give in occasionally), and a little note from me.
Posted by Kristen in Bento, Brain Dump
