The competitive world of school lunches
The competitive world of school lunches
Aviva Wittenberg prepares two school lunches each morning, one vegetarian and the other dairy-free. Their children take them to separate schools in Toronto with restrictions without nuts.
That could make most parents cry in their thermos. Ms. Wittenberg, a 43-year information technology consultant and mother of daughters Talia, 10, and Noa, 13, accept the challenge. publishing his lunchbox creations on Instagram every day before noon. One recent Tuesday, they were samosas of vegetables and tofu, surrounded by an assortment of eight fruits and vegetables, including broccoli, grapes and lupini beans. At 3 p.m., the image had 111 "like". "Beautiful," wrote Christina Diep, a 38-year-old housewife who lives in West Hollywood, California. "I wish my six-year-old son ate this lunch."
Welcome to the world of competitive school lunches. The obsession of people with the publication of photos of food on social networks has been transferred to the multitude of lunch boxes. Instagram posts on lunchboxes increased 90% in the first eight months of 2018, according to Socialbakers, a social media analytics firm that analyzed high traffic accounts with more than 1,000 followers. The lunchbox makers report record sales back to school: Boolabox says the revenues of their Yumboxes increased by 35% this summer, says co-founder Daniela Devitt.
Beau Coffron creates a thematic lunch prepared each week, like Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory.
Photo:
Beau Coffron / lunchboxdad
The Japanese-inspired multi-compartment boxes have helped to feed the lunch box. Preschool teachers sometimes encourage parents to buy elegant all-in-one Bento-box brands such as Yumbox, PlanetBox and OmieBox. One lunch hour with fewer containers and plastic bags means less clutter and confusion. Parents like that it eliminates cupboards full of covers that do not match.
The craze for the lunch box has helped fuel a cottage industry that includes specialized utensils, love notes from prewritten parents, and lunchbox planning applications. In the months before San Francisco homemaker Nancy Yen launched her OmieBox of $ 39.50, she interviewed dozens of food-packing mothers across the country.
"We delved into the psychology of lunch," says Ms. Yen. A big issue that arose in his consumer research was the guilty working mother. "It was, 'I can not be there for everything, so I'm going to make you the most sensational lunch, I'm going to make sure you know that I love you, and I'm going to do it at night when the child is asleep and it's going to be amazing." .
Lunchbox support groups, including Think inside the lunch box Y My lunches for my girlthey are lighting
Parents say that when they publish their creations, a little healthy competition is created. "It's a motivation," says Daniela Oltean, a 46-year-old scientist in San Marcos, California, and the mother of 12-year-old Sabrina and 10-year-old Conrad. Some days are more ambitious than others, and she says that everyone points high in the first weeks of school.
Daniela Oltean (standing) started a Facebook group with her friend Kinda Arzon to share lunch ideas for her children. From left to right: Louis Arzon, Leila Arzon, Sabrina Post and Conrad Post.
Photo:
Kinda Arzon Photography
"I tried to copy one of the
Protein boxes, "Oltean wrote on September 14, including a picture of a hard-boiled egg, salami sticks and sliced fruit. On September 22, she wrote "Baked croissants for breakfast and a tuna salad for lunch, they can have cat food for dinner." She says the daily problem of combining fruit slices, sandwich bread and fish crackers Colors may be difficult. "Some days it feels like it's over, I can not do this anymore." But then you see someone else who posts a picture and says "the kids like it," he says, that fuels more ideas.
Melissa Wheeler, mother of three children who stay at home in Newcastle, Ontario, publishes a diary of her creations on Facebook. The idea started four years ago, when she and a friend sent pictures of their kindergarten children's lunches. "We joked, and sometimes it was a bit competitive," he recalls. "Then our friends made comments and followed us, and then my phone was filled with pictures of the lunch box."
Melissa Wheeler begins preparing her daughter's lunch box every Sunday by storing the chopped ingredients in containers.
Photo:
Melissa Wheeler
In September, she started a new page, called My Lunches for My Girl, which details her lunchbox planning process, which usually begins on Sunday with some cuts and preparation dice. "Ok ready-prepared vegetables," says a September 23 post with a photo of nine plastic containers of vegetables cut into cubes and cut into julienne strips. The next day, he published a lunch box for his 7-year-old daughter Lily, which included tortellini cheese and an egg frittata.
Some parents save one day a week for their best effort. Beau Coffron, a 40-year-old director for a non-profit organization in Oklahoma City, has a thematic lunch every Monday for their two oldest children, Abigail, 12, and Zachary, 8. In recent weeks, lunchbox topics have included Princess Bride, Legos and Star Wars. She started making specialized lunch boxes when Abigail started kindergarten, inspired by images on social networks. "I saw mothers doing things online and I thought, 'Why can not I do this?'", He recalls.
Today, he says that his children do not react to his creative efforts in the same way. "My daughter loves to show it to as many people as possible," she says. Zachary, on the other hand, "does not like all the attention".
As with many things on social networks, it helps to prepare for criticism. Ms. Wheeler says her feelings have been hurt after posting a lunchbox photo. "Once, someone said that I put too much fruit," he recalls. "I cried for that".
Kelly Pfeiffer, assisted by her daughter Kaela, photographs a school lunch for her Nosh and Nourish blog and her Instagram account.
Photo:
Jenna Sparks Photography
Some parents like the challenge increased to an often thankless task. Kelly Pfeiffer, a 38-year-old food blogger in Denver, says she is on a self-imposed mission to create a themed lunch every week for her daughter, Kaela, 8. Last week, Kaela received an O lunchbox that included A Orzo salad, an orange and an Oreo cookie. (Mrs. Pfeiffer, who has written two cookbooks and blogs about food regularly, says that he is sometimes paid to show branded products in his Instagram photos.)
The idea inspired Mabby Howard, a 34-year-old commercial operations manager in Los Angeles and mother of 4-year-old twins, to recently try a P-themed lunchbox that included popcorn, crackers and pineapple, posting it on her own Instagram account.
"I'm not a Pinterest mom, I'm not very creative and I'm not particularly active on social media," says Ms. Howard. "But this is very funny."
Write to Anne Marie Chaker in anne-marie.chaker@wsj.com
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