Mrs F's Quest For Green Continues

Kid will be starting school here shortly. We just got our list of supplies (kind of assumed the 8K covered that... silly me) and the lunch/food rules. You know I'm pretty serious about feeding the kids a healthy diet (okay Kid... not Baby her diet is admittedly 50% "cook cook"). I make most of our food from scratch. I'm at 100% organic food. And still these rules made me nervous and feel like I might look like the "bad mom". This is a private school and they don't provide any food (or water for the Kindergarten room... what?!... the 8 grand cannot fund a drinking fountain or a box of dixie cups?!!!). So we need to send in a snack and a lunch with drink and a water bottle. They need reusable silverware & cloth napkins (fine we've got that covered). Reusable containers... fine....but what I've got are glass and VERY hard for me to open let alone Kid. Obviously I'd like to use a "safe" container. And I've got to fit it all into something. Their food needs to be at the temperature they'll be eating it no heating it up.

Last year at Kid's preschool she went for "Lunch Bunch" once a week before her program started. I dropped her off so I was able to set up her lunch and open her containers. We came right from home so hot things were still hot and cold things were still cold. they were all about the lunch dessert and I felt like crap the first day when I hadn't sent one. Kid's new school?... yeah not big on the lunch dessert. In fact you can send no chocolate or cookies or refined products of any kind. What about a homemade cookie?... NO (I think this will be harder on me then her).

Okay but I digress... the real issue I'm having is what to pack her food in. So while strolling the aisles of Earth Fare (think local Whole Foods) I stumble upon this: Lunchopolois. Hmm... could it be perfect? Cute? check. Big? check. Made of lead free & PVC free plastic? check. Comes with reusable containers? check. Comes with a reusable bottle? check. But why is it made of hard plastic? Why is it in a health food store with the Sigg bottles when it is clearly made of polycarbonate plastic (even the label says so)? Now Whole Foods does not sell any plastic with BPA so I was kind of thinking Earth Fare would be similar. Is there something I don't know? Have they made a "new" kind of BPA free polycarbonate? I rushed home to research.

NO. They do not make a "new" food safe form of polycarbonate. While it would be great to buy the lead-free/PVC free lunch "box" what the hell difference does it make if you are packing your actual food in BPA laden plastic? This is the terrible plastic people! The kind that does in fact leech chemicals into your food and drinks. Why is this being sold as a "green" choice? It appears the fact that you can reuse the containers is what qualifies them as "green". The marketing of environmentally "friendly" products is about to send me over the edge. There are no clear labeling standards or regulations. This product isn't "green" it's factually toxic! And what's worse is it is being actively marketed as the thoughtful parent's lunch box of choice for their child.

So I'm back to the drawing board. If you have any ideas... and I mean really legitimately "green" products... let me know. I will need to send hot food some of the time (obviously not sending that in polycarbonate thank you very much!). Are there divided hot & cold lunch boxes? What about the badass construction crew style?