Some tips for ensuring safe, healthy school lunches | Feature Columnist
Parents, as you prepare to get your children ready to go back to school for either face-to-face or virtual learning, don’t forget food safety.
We always try to make sure our children have the right clothes, shoes, watch, belts, bookbag and lunch box. When finding the right lunchbox, we try to find the cutest, the one with cartoon characters or that’s imprint with names. We also think about how many sections it may have. But one thing we forget about the lunch box: making sure the food inside is kept safe.
Make sure your child’s lunch box is age appropriate (something they can open). This is also the perfect time to get in different fruits and vegetables, and 100% juices. Don’t fill it with candy and chips. Also remember to cut your child’s sandwiches, slice fruit (use a citrus juice to keep fruits from turning brown) and include a spoon or folk.
If you notice your child is not eating their lunch ask them why. If the food is not at the proper temperature please discard. The food may no longer be safe to eat.
Wash fresh fruits and vegetables under running water and dry thoroughly before packing. To prevent cross-contamination, don’t reuse packaging materials such as plastic bags, paper and foil food wraps.
Eating healthy food helps children concentrate and learn. Healthy lunches and snacks are important for active children. It is important to offer healthy lunchbox choices. Tips include fresh fruit, crunchy vegetables and a combination of protein, dairy and carbohydrate foods.
Food allergies have become more prevalent, especially allergies to nuts and peanut butter. Some people cannot tolerate foods that contain gluten. Food allergies or intolerances should be discussed to prevent a severe allergic reaction. It is important to develop a management plan with your family doctor, your child’s school, teacher and class.
• It is important to keep offering healthy lunchbox choices in a variety of ways, as children learn to eat what is familiar to them.
• Encourage your child to sit and eat before heading out to play. Also, talk to your school about making sure all children get a chance to eat enough before play starts.
• Include fruit and vegetables in your child’s lunchbox.
• Foods such as sandwiches can be prepared the night before or on the weekend, frozen, then taken for each day’s lunch.
• Clean the lunchbox each day with warm soapy water or a wipe to get rid of any germs and bacteria.
• Not all children want to carry a lunchbox. Remind your children that eating lunch at school is also a good idea. Schools will provide a nutritious balanced meal for lunch.
Here’s a recipe for whole-wheat strawberry muffins:
• 1 cup strawberries, washed and chopped
• ¼ cup margarine, melted
• 2 cups whole-wheat flour (or gluten free)
• ½ cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
Heat oven to 400°F. Grease muffin tin with cooking spray or use paper liners. Melt margarine in small saucepan or microwave and set aside. In a small bowl add strawberries, eggs, yogurt, melted butter and vanilla. Mix well. In a medium bowl mix together flour, brown sugar and baking soda. Mix well and add the strawberry mixture to the flour mixture and mix until ingredients are wet. Don’t over mix. Spoon batter into muffin cups about 2/3 full.
Bake for 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown.
For additional information on the EFNEP Program, contact the Pasquotank County Extension Center at 338-3954. Visit Pasquotank Cooperative Extension on the web at https://pasquotank.ces.ncsu.edu, or the EFNEP site at https://www.ncefnep.org. You can als like us on Facebook at NC Cooperative Extension-Pasquotank County Center or Della Hicks NC Efnep.
Della Hicks is an Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program educator with the Pasquotank Center of NC Cooperative Extension.
