That is not a new challenge or bit of advice. Bringing your own lunch can save money and calories. Or it is supposed to anyway. But only if you compare that to eating out.
If you are buying prepackaged microwaveable or sandwich-kit lunches you may be doing neither and moreover you’re not making a healthy choice for Mother Nature.
Now this isn’t a scientific research study, just my guestimation. So you’re going to have to give me a bit of a break. But let’s think this over. I can make a sandwich with slices of lunch meat, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, onion or whatever floats my boat tucked between two pieces of whole wheat bread. Toss it in a reusable container and I’ve got a nice healthy meal containing servings of fresh vegetables, dairy, fiber, etc. It’s filling and full of flavor. Call me Joey Tribbiani, but I love a good sandwich.
Now if you go this route, you’ve created no extra waste and you can even get bonus points if you’ve bought any of the ingredients from local food producers. It is possible to find bread, ham, cheese and veggies locally. You can pronounce and recognize the ingredients in your lunch. You have done something good for your body and the Earth. All this at a very low price.
Or you can buy a prepackaged microwaveable or sandwich-kit-type lunch, which are good and convenient and possibly good for you, too. I’m not a nutritionist so I have no idea about the specific nutritional benefits of any of these meals. But I do know that I like to eat, and lean and healthy cuisine choices leave a lot to be desired. I’ve never been one to fill my body with calories just because I need to. And have a strict rule that a meal should be enjoyed, not endured. But that is beside the point. Let’s examine the environmental implications of these.
Most microwaveable meals come in a plastic tray covered with cellophane wrap packaged inside of a cardboard box. That’s the simple kind. There are those new steamer entrees with all of the above plus an additional plastic strainer.
My favorite though is the sandwich kit. Inside of a cardboard box, there are three or four items individually wrapped in plastic, a cup of Jell-O sometimes, a plastic fork and napkin again wrapped in plastic and a condiment pouch.
These convenience lunches are trucked to your local megamarket from Northfield, Ill., and get additional checkmarks by their name for not supporting local food producers.
Now that being said, I’m a total fan of South Beach’s grilled chicken Caesar wrap and I dig the Southwestern-style chicken wrap. And being a wife and mother of two little ones with a full time job and a laundry list of extracurriculars, there have been days that I might not have eaten at all if it weren’t for meals wrapped in cardboard, because sometimes there isn’t even enough time to whip up a sandwich.
But sandwich fixings can be had for about $10 and that will get you through a week or maybe longer, with minimal addition to our local landfills and possibly helping out a local family and economy through the support of local foods. Now, for that same price you get only two to four days of cardboard lunches.
So I challenge you to a sandwich. Let’s encourage frozen lunch- and sandwich-kit outfits to incorporate less-is-more into their packaging philosophies. Write notes to your favorite lunch company and tell them how you feel. Another suggestion while we’re at it: change out that Jell-O for some chocolate pudding. That couldn’t hurt either.
— Lindsey