Tips for Making Lunch Box Packing Fun for Kids (and Less Tedious for Parents!)

Combine Their Interests with Food

Britany Navarrete of LunchBoxForBella does everything she can to make food fun for her daughter. She’s made snacks based on Taylor Swift lyrics and themed lunches inspired by her favorite show, Gilmore Girls. 

“Kiddos are working hard all day at school and when they head to lunch they want something they enjoy, just like adults,” she tells PEOPLE. “They don’t want to eat the same thing over and over, so making it fun and exciting with something simple as a flower-shaped BLT or heart-shaped strawberries can turn a bad day into a great day.” 

Reimagine Leftovers

Turning last night’s dinner into today’s lunch works wonders for Maia Neumann of @yumboxlunch. She tells PEOPLE that it saves time, reduces food waste and helps kids learn to enjoy real, homemade food in new ways. Chicken and potatoes can make a nice cold salad, or spoon pasta into a thermos for a hearty midday meal.

Make Eating Colorful

Kelly Pfeiffer of @eattherainbow_kids takes a colorful approach to lunch. She tells PEOPLE that simple things like pre-peeling or cutting fruit into bite size pieces makes eating easier, and aiming monochromatic lunches add a visual aspect as well as helps add variety to meals, since you can “rotate through the different colors of the rainbow.”

“For example, you might grab strawberries, cherries, tomatoes, mini sweet peppers and pizza sauce during a red week, and then next week you are grabbing sweet potatoes, cantaloupe and carrots,” she says. 

Keep it Simple

Jenny P of @lunchboxmafia knows that most kids only get 20 to 30 minutes for lunch — and that most of that time is spent socializing. She recommends that parents pack familiar, easy-to-eat foods that don’t require help to open, cut, or heat. 

“Keep ingredients simple like hard-boiled eggs, sliced fruit, deli meats, cheese and dips ready in the fridge so you can assemble lunches in under 5 minutes.” she tells PEOPLE. “Lunch doesn’t need to be fancy — just fresh. If they love cheese and crackers, make it a mini charcuterie. If they want yogurt and granola, go for it. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel daily!”

Make it Personalized

Beau Coffron (a.k.a. @lunchboxdad) wants his kids to take lunch personally. He includes notes to let them know he’s thinking of them, and he also gives them a say in what they’ll be served.

“You offer two healthy things and let your child choose between them.” he tells PEOPLE. “This way you feel good about either choice and they feel great about the fruits or vegetables that end up in their lunch.”

He also says not to forget about dried or canned fruits, which can be more “economical when fresh fruit is out of season.”

Use Accessories

Mina Chun of @minas_recipe always adds the cutest special touches to her kids lunches when she can. 

“I use fun little accessories – like food picks (most of them from Japan), sandwich cutters and rice molds to make everything extra cute.” she tells PEOPLE. “It always makes my day when they come home saying how much they enjoyed it!”

Use Your Freezer Stash

Mornings can get busy, which is why Rossini Perez of @tinatakeslunch says her freezer is her secret weapon.

“In this lunchbox, I packed frozen dumplings that warm up in under 10 minutes and paired them with favorite fruits, veggies, and a snack,” she says. Another time, she adds, she might bake a frozen pretzel and include ham and cheese roll-ups.

Getting Creative

Sharon Mathevula of @smartmomz knows that that making lunch daily can be a chore, but even switching it up with a new format (like cookie cutter shapes) can break up the monotony. Hey, the sandwiches have to get cut somehow, right? She tells PEOPLE that tricks like putting a variety of noshes into a bento-style lunchbox and cutting food into fun shapes can help make lunch visually appealing and help encourage kids to try the foods they normally ignore.