What is Nude Food?

Nude Food is food without excess packaging. It is food that comes to pre-school without disposable packaging such as extra plastic bags, paper bags, wrappings or cling wraps.

We encourage you to package snacks and lunches in durable, reusable containers. They are a great way to bring food and keep it fresh, promote healthy eating, provide long term cost savings and environmental benefits with reduced packing and waste.

The benefits of packing a ‘nude’ lunch every day:

Improve Your Child’s Nutrition:
With a third of children’s daily diet being consumed at pre-school, the food in their lunch box needs to to provide optimal nutrition, laying the foundation for a life time of good eating and good health.

Creating waste free snacks and lunches reduces the consumption of packaged, processed foods and increases the intake of fresh, whole foods. Compared to fresh foods, pre-packaged food often contains more kilojoules, fat, salt and sugar. Avoiding those quick, pre-packaged snacks reduces waste and ensures better nutrition for your child.

Reduce Landfill:
Australia is the second highest producer of waste per person in the western world! School lunches are contributing to this, with the average lunch-toting child generating around 30kg of litter a year. You can do your bit to reduce this by packing a school lunch without including any unnecessary packaging, yoghurt suckers, small tubs, zip-lock bags, paper bags or cling wrap.

By reducing the amount of excess packaging this will reduce the amount of waste that needs to go in bins to be sent to landfill.

Save Money:
Avoiding pre-packaged foods and buying foods in bulk can save time and money. Even better, a home-made carrot and apple muffin/frittata/muesli slice will have a much greater nutrient value AND you can control the amount of sugar used, avoiding preservatives and additives completely.

By making your own lunchbox goodies, you can then purchase the raw ingredients in bulk too – instead of buying a 6 pack of yoghurts, purchase a large tub and make up individual, leak proof containers for lunch.

Tips for Nude Food:

  • AVOID cling-wrap, zip-lock or plastic bags, foil, single use cutlery or pre-packaged foods.
  • Involve children in packing/making their own lunch and snacks – they’re more likely to eat it.
  • If mornings are busy, pack food the night before and keep it in the fridge.
  • Ask children what they like to eat at pre-school and how much time they have to eat (it may be different and much less than at home).
  • Try making your own snacks – check out our Parents Recipes for some great ideas.
  • Many snack items can be bought in bulk and decanted into smaller reusable containers. This can reduce packaging and save money.

Examples of Nude Food

Nude Food includes a wide array of options, as long as there is no extra packaging. This could include:

  • A sandwich in a reusable container
  • A sectioned lunch box with snacks in compartments
  • Yoghurt in a reusable container
  • Muesli bars and snack in reusable containers and wraps
  • Fruit and berries in a reusable container

Examples of non-Nude Food

  • Snacks in a packet
  • Yoghurt in suckers and tubs
  • Muesli bars in wrappers
  • Sandwiches in zip-lock bags
  • Cut vegetables and fruits in zip-lock bags

When packing your lunchboxes

Make a conscious decision to only include foods that leave no packaging at the end of the day. Pop a sandwich into a named lunchbox and use small containers for any snack foods. The only thing left at the end of the day should be an apple core, crusts or other left over food remnants – all good for the compost to enrich our soils.

Source: Kesab Environmental Solutions