The craft of making kids' lunches

Tag : Neoprene Fabric
Add to these the usual trials of lunch packing -- a child'smercurial tastes, other parents who cut their kids' sandwiches liketopiaries, the ever-present temptation of junk food -- and you'vegot a microcosm of parental angst in a 10-by-7-inch box with ahandle.
Packing lunch is "the bane of every parent's existence," saidBecker, who now lives in Connecticut. "Funny how something sosimple can be so complicated."
The packed lunch began modestly enough: a sandwich in a dome-liddedsteel box carried by factory workers. The golden age of thelunchbox as pop culture time capsule and movie tie-in didn't beginuntil the early 1950s, when Thermos came out with a HopalongCassidy box.
The lunchbox became a childhood totem. "It is one of the earliestpoints when children get to choose something for themselves. It'san early test of consumerism," said David Shayt, a curator with theSmithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.Lunchbox makers encouraged obsolescence by switching to thinner,more easily dented gauges of steel and rolling out new models eachfall the way automakers did with cars.
Today's lunchboxes are too sterile for Shayt. "The mushy soft packslack some of the 20th-century rigidity and John Wayne swagger," hesaid. "They look like a fanny pack or something you stick aNutri-Grain bar in, not a bologna sandwich."
But lunchbox makers know what they're doing. They're tapping intoour avian-flu-freaked, mad-cow-manic, global-warming-worriedzeitgeist.
Fear crept gradually into lunchbox design. Thermos boxes came withinsulated containers. By the 1980s, rust-prone metal was replacedwith easier-to-clean plastic. The plastic boxes, however, weren'tgood at keeping food at safe temperatures to reduce the risk ofbacterial growth. So in the '90s, plastic gave way to fabric orvinyl stuffed with insulating foam.
Environmentalists have raised concerns recently about the healtheffects of chemicals used to make vinyl and plastics. Now there arehigh-tech water bottles with descriptions straight out of alaboratory-supply catalogue. Many lunchboxes are PVC-free, meaningthat they are not made with polyvinyl chloride, which can containlead. A popular alternative to vinyl is neoprene, the material usedto make diving suits. Another is FDA-approved food-grade PEVA, anonchlorinated vinyl.
The biggest challenge, however, has little to do with suchexternalities. Consciously or not, many parents compare themselveswith some unattainable ideal. Several parents interviewed for thisarticle referred to themselves as "the mom who gave up" or "a lazymom" because they haven't figured out how to pack a scrumptiousmeal made solely of green vegetables and whole grains sculpted intothe shape of a rabbit and laid out in a toxin- and commercial-freecontainer made from recycled milk jugs.
Whatever you pack, being judged (by yourself and others) isinevitable. The crumbs in the Tupperware container say it all. Youknow instantly whether meatloaf dumplings were a success or a bust.And everybody else at your kid's lunch table does, too.
The latest hot solution is the bento box. The art of the bento --as perfected in Japan -- is a takeout or homemade meal made up ofsingle servings of rice, fish and vegetables, packed tightly into awashable container. Japanese parents have been known to spend hoursartfully arranging their children's bento box meals, and thecontainers themselves can be quite elaborate.
Americans have embraced ersatz bentos, most notably in the form ofLunchables, those packaged meals of crackers, cheese and otherprocessed foods sold by Kraft Foods. Inspired by bento boxes,Lunchables have remained huge sellers for 20 years, owning nearly80 percent of the $750 million packaged kids'-meal market,according to market research firm Packaged Facts.
But for Deborah Hamilton of San Francisco, sending her son toschool with Lunchables is the ultimate defeat. Hamilton has triedto reclaim bento as a healthful solution to the lunch-packingconundrum. With her blog, Lunch in a Box ( www.lunchinabox.net ), she has become the Rachael Ray of bento, sharing tips andrecipes, as well as the reception her meals get from her young son,whom she refers to on the blog as Bug.
Bug will eat almost anything, allowing Hamilton to try a broadrange of foods, including quail eggs and grilled skate wing withchili sambal sauce. The beauty of bento, as she sees it, is itsability to accommodate all sorts of foods and palates and presentit in a way that entices kids.
"We're really competing with Lunchables, with fast food," Hamiltonsaid. "One thing the fast-food and packaged-food industry has donereally well is make food fun."
Though at first glance her meals look elaborate, her mantra isspeed. Packing a bento lunch should take 15 minutes, tops, shesaid. Preparation is key. Hamilton believes in "leftovermakeovers," such as using curried vegetables from dinner as thestuffing for dumplings or turning last night's spaghetti intosesame noodles for lunch the next day.
Packing is an acquired skill. Bento boxes must be packed to thegills to keep food from shifting during transport. Hamilton has avariety of tricks, such as using colorful silicone baking cups tohold a small drumstick and keep it separate from the other food.She fills gaps with cherry tomatoes or other small fruits andvegetables. The result is a riot of colors and textures and tastes.
But she draws the line at trying to turn her son's lunch into foodart.
"I am wary of setting the bar too high," she said. "I don't want mykid to expect a fabulous creation every day."