The eco-healthy lunchbox kit
The Eco-Healthy Lunch Box Kit helps you reduce your family’s exposure to toxins, reduce your family’s impact on the environment and increase the amount of healthy, local, and tasty foods your kids eat.
Go eco-healthy!
The Oregon Environmental Council (OEC) is pleased to introduce you to your Eco-Healthy Lunch Box Kit! This kit is designed to help you reduce your family’s exposure to toxins, reduce your family’s impact on the environment and increase the amount of healthy, local, and tasty foods your kids eat.
The lunch box and sticker sheet are for the youngsters in the family, but we’ve also included educational tools to help you make informed decisions about the food and products you purchase.
Click here to order one or more lunchbox kits. Read on for more information about the kit and why we packed it the way we did.
What’s in the kit?
- Stainless steel lunch box
- Klean Kanteen® beverage container
- Spudware® biodegradeable, compostable, reusable utensils
- Reusable sandwich wrap
- Environmentally friendly stickers
- Healthy lunch recipe guide
- Environmental health tip magnets
- Green cleaning wallet guide
What we packed...
Stainless steel lunch box + Klean Kanteen®
Many lunch boxes today are made with vinyl. Vinyl is a plastic that releases harmful chemicals throughout its life cycle. During production of vinyl, carcinogenic dioxins are released. Vinyl also incorporates plasticizers called phthalates.
Phthalates mimic hormones once they get into your body and are linked to a number of undesired health outcomes ranging from early onset of puberty to decreased sperm counts and breast cancer. Vinyl lunch boxes have also been found to contain heavy metals such as lead. Lead is a strong neurotoxin and when ingested or inhaled can reduce IQ and interfere with brain development. This stainless steel lunch box is a safe, toxic-free container for your child’s food.
Many common beverage containers contain bisphenol-A (BPA). Examples include see-through, hard plastic sports bottles (those labeled #7) and stainless steel containers that have a BPA lining. BPA mimics estrogen in human bodies after being ingested. BPA has been linked to reduced fertility, breast cancer, prostate cancer and obesity. Klean Kanteens® are BPA-free and reusable. This helps reduce waste created from single-use beverage containers and reduces your family’s exposure to harmful chemicals.
Spudware® utensils
Unlike regular plastic utensils, these potatobased utensils break down in the environment over time, rather than existing for centuries after they are disposed of, or finding their way into our oceans and waterways where plastic can contaminate and injure ocean creatures. These utensils are also reusable!
Reusable sandwich wrap
Designed with a safer plastic (low-density polyethylene or LDPE) and kid-friendly cloth, these reusable sandwich wraps are far better than single-use disposal plastic bags. Plastic bags are petroleum-based products that release potentially harmful chemicals during their production and clog up our waste disposal systems and oceans. The ocean-themed sandwich wraps help remind us that plastic packaging and products increasingly contaminate our oceans as well as kill sea turtles, ocean birds and other sea life. By reducing use of plastic bags, we reduce pollutants in our environment and protect Oregon’s ocean.
Environmentally friendly stickers
Oregon-themed stickers teach children about our natural resources. They can be cut out and organized to create a uniquely personalized Eco-Healthy Lunch Box. The reference sheet provides identification of wonderful places and species that need to be protected in our state. The stickers are made of a vinyl-free material, have a recycled paper backing, and are coated with natural food starch.
Healthy lunch recipe guide
In partnership with New Seasons Market™, we’ve provided eight healthy, delicious and easy-to-make lunch box recipes. Each recipe will help you keep the food in your child’s lunch box nutritious and fun! For more nutrition tips, recipes
and seasonal shopping advice, please visit www.newseasonsmarket.com.
Green cleaning guide
Once you get your lunch box home, someone is going to have to clean it. This guide helps you see common kitchen products, such as baking soda, vinegar, and lemon juice, as dirt- and germ-fighting cleaning machines. Using this green cleaning
guide, you can reduce harmful chemicals your family breathes and reduce the chemicals that go down our drains and get into our waterways and harm wildlife.
Environmental health tip magnets (3)
We’ve included three magnets to help you make informed consumer decisions.
1. Seasonal buying guide
Thanks to the Lake Oswego Farmers’ Market, this magnet helps you know what produce is in season. By buying produce that’s in season, you help reduce pollutants related to the transport and storage of food, as well as supporting local
farmers. See www.oregonfarmersmarkets.org.
2. Organics purchasing guide
The Environmental Working Group’s organics purchasing guide shows you the types of produce that tend to have higher pesticide residue even after washing. By choosing to buy organic for produce that has higher levels of pesticide residue, you can reduce your family’s exposure in a cost-effective way.
Buying organic also helps to reduce pesticides that end up in Oregon’s wildlife and water. To learn more, please visit www.foodnews.org.
3. Safer plastics guide
This guide helps you choose “safer” plastics. Specifically, we recommend avoiding plastics labeled #3 (Polyvinyl Chloride or vinyl: contains phthalates that mimic hormones in the body), #6 (Polystyrene or Styrofoam: releases carcinogens during production and disposal) and #7 (Bisphenol-A: mimics hormones in the body). In general, avoid plastics.
