Leave the litter out of lunch

Are lunches with no litter possible without spending a long of time and money?

My latest article for The Chronicle Herald about waste-free lunches.

A group of friends and I were chatting via our group text one day about the concept of litterless lunches for school. Some of us had heard of it, some had not. Some schools have held a litterless lunch challenge - challenging students (or their parents) not to pack any trash in their lunch for a week. We were sharing ideas on how to do it, without needing to spend a ton of time or money on it, and still be able to pack lunches approved by our kids. Is it even possible? 

Naturally, this led me to write an article about litterless lunches! 

“It may seem hard to beat the convenience of quick, go-to items like apple sauce pouches, granola bars, and cheese strings. It may also sound challenging to go litterless without spending a lot of time and money. “ 

I spoke with Claire Gallant with Bite-Sized Kitchen, a Halifax, N.S. business that teaches kids to cook from scratch, using whole ingredients and hands-on methods, and offers tips through her website, workshops, and classes.  She shares plenty of ways to make your child’s lunch litter-free.

With a bit of concentrated effort, it is possible. And it will actually save you time and money in the long run. 

In the article Claire shares tips on lunch prep, practical ideas on what to serve in a litterless lunch and her recipe for Bite-Sized Kitchen’s Energy Bites. 

I also spoke with Jolyn Swain, the owner of Nurtured, a shop here in Halifax, about all the reusable food storage products they sell in their waste-free lunch section. Sure, there’s an upfront cost to owning these products but the savings over time far outweigh the money spent on items like plastic bags that you will literally throw in the garbage. Again, you’ll save money in the long run. 

It’s worth a note that I’ve noticed that Bulk Barn also has a great selection of affordable, reusable products; containers, beeswax, metal straws.

While writing the article I also learned about a school in Kentville, NS that has moved to a litterless cafeteria all together, with positive results. 

Here’s a peek at the article.

Leave out the litter: Litterless lunches are nutritious, quick, inexpensive, and a small step to big change while our climate is in crisis.

By Heather Fegan

We’re deep into fall and kids have long been settled back at school. Being in the thick of packing lunches every day is hard enough, never mind adding the efforts of making it litterless; packing a lunch with zero waste, no garbage involved. It’s a challenge some parents and schools are taking up. 

Kings County Academy is taking small steps for big change while our climate is in crisis. The public school in Kentville, N.S removed all garbage cans from their cafeteria a year ago. 

“We’ve started with a litterless cafeteria,” says Principal Victoria Laurence. “We moved away from using paper plates, plastic knives, and forks. We have real cutlery, china-type plates, no straws.”

Laurence says they’re asking parents to look at their practices. 

“If parents are sending garbage, we’re asking that it goes home,” she says. “We want to leave less of a footprint. We’re trying to model for the kids less waste.” 

They’ve seen a significant difference in the amount of garbage the school is putting out.  

That doesn’t mean that families aren’t putting it out at home. But they may change their practices a little bit. We have seen less packaging.” 

Making the switch

It may seem hard to beat the convenience of quick, go-to items like apple sauce pouches, granola bars, and cheese strings. It may also sound challenging to go litterless without spending a lot of time and money.  

Claire Gallant of Bite-Sized Kitchen, a Halifax, N.S. business, says this is not the case. Her company raises expectations of what kids can do in the kitchen, like lunch packing and meal planning. She teaches kids to cook from scratch, using whole ingredients and hands-on methods, and offers tips through her website, workshops, and classes. 

When it comes to a waste-free lunch, she says there are so many things you can do.

Continue reading: Leave out the litter: Litterless lunches are nutritious, quick, inexpensive, and a small step to big change while our climate is in crisis.