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Healthy School Lunch Ideas for Healthy Brains and Bodies

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Now that your child is in school, you know they need the best nutrition to help them through the school day. What your child eats at lunch can affect their behavior, concentration and focus, and school performance.

So what are some healthy lunches you can send your kids to school with? Below are some suggestions offered by Parents Magazine that parents and kids will love.

Bento Boxes

Kids love bento boxes – lunch boxes containing small, individual compartments where small servings of food can be separated. It makes eating a healthy lunch visually appealing and a lot of fun. Each of the following meal suggestions is meant for bento boxes, but they can easily be adapted for a regular lunch box, just use the plastic bags and containers you usually use.

Pasta Salad Bento Box 

  • ¾ cup diced watermelon.
  • One cup bow-tie pasta salad with veggies.
  • One cup baby greens salad with 2 tablespoons of your child’s favorite low-fat salad dressing.
  • Two fig newtons.

Put each portion of them each in a separate compartment, and voila! A colorful, delicious, healthy lunch.

Tuna Fish Sandwich Bento Box

Put the following ingredients in each separate compartment:

  • A tuna fish sandwich (cut in the shape of a fish for extra fun) on whole wheat bread.
  • 10 baby carrots with 2 tablespoons of your child’s favorite low-fat ranch dip or other dressing.
  • 1 small plum or nectarine.
  • ¼ cup whole grain goldfish crackers.

Pretzel Kabob Bento Box

  • Ham, turkey, and cheese rolled up, sliced, and then skewered with low-sodium pretzel sticks
  • ½ cup mandarin oranges (not the kind soaked in high-fructose corn syrup)
  • ½ cup shelled edamame or peas
  • 1 container fat-free chocolate or vanilla pudding

Breakfast for Lunch Bento Box

  • Sliced hard-boiled egg (or ½ cup scrambled eggs, if your child prefers) and 2 mini whole-wheat waffles
  • Bell pepper strips – orange, red, and yellow
  • 1 sliced kiwi mixed with blueberries or blackberries
  • 1 mini corn muffin

Lunch isn’t the only way to support your child’s health during the school day. You can also do it with natural supplements from trusted sources like Source Naturals, Nordic Naturals, and Garden of Life.

Source Naturals

Source Naturals believes in a balanced diet, healthy lifestyle, emotional well-being, spiritual development, and optimal health for all. For kids, they offer a wide range of products to help support their health naturally. 

To go with a healthy lunch, try Attentive Child Fruit Chewables, a children’s supplement that offers brain metabolism and mental concentration support.

Or supplement a healthy lunch with Wellness Herbal Kids Liquid, a natural supplement containing echinacea root and goldenseal root that offers immune support for children.  

Nordic Naturals

Nordic Naturals delivers quality fish oil products that taste great and provide the omega-3s that your body needs.

To support focus and concentration at school, try Omega Focus Junior, which contains a unique blend of omega-3s EPA and DHA with phosphatidylcholine, magnesium, L-carnosine, and zinc to help attention and learning by supporting overall brain health.

To help support immune health once your child as back dealing with all of the germs that come from school, also consider Vitamin C Gummies. These delicious, sour, tangerine-flavored gummy slices are suitable for adults and children ages 4 and up.

Garden of Life

Garden of Life is a recognized leader and innovator of whole food nutritional supplements, with a mission to empower extraordinary health.

To provide your child with natural, comprehensive health support, try Kids Multi Gummies, a multivitamin made from real, organic, non-GMO fruits and vegetables.

Or help support their immune systems during the school day (and beyond) with Elderberry Immune Syrup, a Certified Organic, Non-GMO supplement that also includes Organic Echinacea, Zinc and Vitamin C for an added boost.

What’s your favorite healthy lunch to make for your child?