Back to school means looking over lunch box options
Lots of lunch tote choices for kids, but there's always lots to consider about the bags and boxes
The pre-September ritual of going back-to-school shopping endures even though life at school has changed a lot over the years.
One thing that has remained a constant in school life is the presence of the lunch box — or lunch bag — that kids use to haul their sandwiches, soups and snacks to school each day.
What's on the front?
Just before the school year rolls around, kids who head out to stores with their parents will find many kinds of lunch totes to choose from. That's where the hard work begins.
The picture on the front of the lunch box can do a lot to help the sale — and can leave kids with a tough choice to make.
In the video above, for example, a young child in 1985 is having to decide between brightly coloured plastic lunch boxes — priced at $6.57 each — featuring He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Fraggle Rock, Cabbage Patch Kids and characters from The A Team on the front.
"A good lunch box is essential," reporter Des Kilfoil explained to viewers at that time, with advice that still holds up today. "One should choose carefully."
Where are the metal ones?
In August 1995, CBC's Midday was talking about lunch boxes — how much they cost, which ones had the best features and the most popular types that year.
One question that Midday co-host Brent Bambury had was what had happened to all the metal lunch boxes that were popular during his childhood.
Laurie Hoogstraten, the show's consumer columnist, believed they had lost their place on store shelves because they had fallen out of favour with school administrators.
"The thing is no one makes metal lunch kits anymore because I think they were officially deemed offensive weapons," she said.
Box or bag, it has to function
Hoogstraten also told viewers about the need to ensure the lunch tote of choice works for your child.
She held up a lunch box that, in her estimation, fit only a drink and a sandwich.
"There's not really room for even an apple," Hoogstraten said. "That's kind of a drawback, I would think."
It was a reminder to parents to think about how that lunch box would work — if at all.
What to pack — and not to pack
Having a lunch tote is only half the equation for the midday meal that kids have at school. The other part is what is inside that box or bag.
Kids, as we all remember from our own childhoods, end up eating whatever their parents pack for them — or whatever they can trade for what was packed for them.
These days, however, kids are not welcome to bring just anything to eat in their lunch boxes. Concerns about children with severe allergies have left some things off the menu.
While peanuts have often been a problem for lunch-toting students, they aren't the only food that schools have been known to be wary of. In 2008, even onions were a no-no at a school in Moncton, N.B., as shown in the clip above, again due to allergies.
