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Photo by Frank Couch.
Holly Grainger likes to include her daughters, Ellie and Frances, in packing their lunches to teach them about healthy eating.
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Photo by Patty Bradley.
Sample lunches that Holly Grainger packs for her daughters for school.
Now that school is back in session, one thing on the mind of many parents is what to pack in their child’s lunch. From buying the food to making a menu to packing it up five days a week, it can be one more thing on the to-do list.
Holley Grainger is a nationally recognized nutrition and lifestyle expert, dietician and mom of two, and she shares her simple and healthy lunch ideas via her website and social media. With a focus in culinary communications, she has worked at Southern Living, myrecipes.com and cookinglight.com before starting her own company, HJG Communications.
Hoover resident Grainger has a large social-media following, with more than 4,000 Facebook fans and Pinterest followers and more than 16,000 followers on Instagram. She said she enjoys not only telling people about nutrition, but also showing them how to make healthy lunches for school.
“I want to help busy parents with simple, strategic solutions to feed their children,” she said. “I make things that are practical and delicious. I still do a lot of shortcut meals and assembly. I fall under the same category as all moms with busy children, busy lives and lots of activities, but I want to take what I’m doing and empower other families to eat healthy.”
Grainger said parents can take simple ingredients and find ways to combine them to make lunches for their children. Her lunchbox posts have resonated with parents across the country. Her post on 125 Healthy Lunchboxes for Kids garnered 50,000 pins on Pinterest.
While she tries to plan a couple of days ahead, she does have mornings where she is packing last minute and running out the door, she said.
Grainger packs her girls’ lunches in divided boxes to separate food and help with portion control.
“It’s easier for me when I have a divided lunchbox to be able to go in and think yogurt, fruit, vegetables and grain/wheat,” she said. “It helps to see visually how to portion and how much of each item they should be eating. When the kids come home, it goes in the dishwasher and makes things easy.”
She said children are getting too much sugar and not enough calcium and vitamin D. She recommends packing fruits, vegetables, dairy and protein for a balanced lunch. She encourages parents to bring their children in the kitchen to help them pack their lunch, giving healthy options and letting them choose what to pack.
“When you allow children to help make decisions about what is going in their lunchbox, learning about food, making healthy choices, when you turn them loose in the school cafeteria, they will have a fundamental foundation in what goes together,” Grainger said. “It’s all about variety and teaching children to make the good choices.”
While lunchrooms are trying to find ways to make lunches healthier, parents can encourage their children to make a healthy connection between eating and performance, she said. When healthier choices are made, it translates into more energy in the classroom or in their extracurricular activities.
Grainger plans to launch some e-books soon, as well as downloads and a newsletter featuring weekly lunch plans. She has a wealth of information on her blog, and every third post on her Instagram account is a #healthylittlelunchbox picture. She will soon offer a newsletter subscription and do live Facebook streams so parents can make lunches along with her.
For more information, go to HolleyGrainger.com.
Healthy Lunch Guide
- Whole grain or complex carb: whole grain bread or whole grain crackers.
- Protein: Lean meat, such as grilled chicken, deli meat ham or turkey. Other options include roll-up sandwiches with meat, cheese and avocado with a thin layer of lettuce and tomato. Hard-boiled eggs, peanut butter, Wheat Thins and hummus, nuts or almond slices.
- Fruit and vegetables: Preferably both, but at least one. Try grapes, berries, applesauce, carrot sticks, broccoli, cauliflower or black beans.
- Dairy: Milk. Other substitutes are water or 100% juice, no more than 6-8 ounces. Options can include string cheese or yogurt tubes.
*Keep items cold using frozen pack bags
Kelly Saunders is a dietitian at Children’s of Alabama.
