Eco-Healthy Lunch

Hidden Villa strongly requests that ALL students bring an Eco-Healthy Lunch on the field trip. This means a lunch that is healthy for the environment by not producing trash and healthy for the body by providing lots of nutritious energy.

• Healthy for the environment
  • Reduce. Use less packaging. For example, instead of buying juice boxes, buy a large container and bring it in your own reusable container.
  • Reuse plastic containers and plastic and paper bags. Use your paper lunch bag several times, or use a cloth bag instead (you can easily make one out of clothing scraps).
  • Recycle paper, plastic, cardboard, aluminum and whatever else you can (after you have reused them!).

• Healthy for the body
  • Help your child prepare a lunch from scratch - without using prepackaged, processed foods.
  • Main dishes: whole wheat sandwich, bean burrito, brown rice sushi, hummus with pita; or leftover pasta, stirfry, stew or other healthy meals packed in firmly closed containers.
  • Snacks: fruit, carrots, peanut butter and celery, whole wheat or rice crackers, dry roasted nuts or seeds.
  • Desserts: Yogurt or apple sauce (preferably packed in a reused container), dried fruit or whole wheat fruit bars.
  • Drinks: water, water and WATER. Your child will be walking a lot throughout the day and will need to replenish his or her body with lots of water. Juice and fruit drinks do not re-hydrate children as well as water.
  • Children need lots of sustained energy to allow their brains to do their best learning. Sugary foods cause a sharp upswing in children's energy level (making it difficult for them to focus) and then quickly leaves them in state of lethargy. Processed foods can often include artificial preservatives and colorings that many children have allergies to. Because these additives are now so prevalent in our foods, many of these allergies go undetected. However, children who have allergies to these additives often demonstrate hyperactive behaviors and difficulty focusing.