What is ‘nude food?’ The term ‘nude food’ means food without excess packaging. It’s a way for schools and families to start reducing waste that goes into bins, and therefore to the landfill. A kid’s lunchbox might contain; a juice box, cereal bar wrapper, 1-2 snack bags, and sandwiches wrapped in foil or paper. All this packaging could potentially have been avoided, if you get the right re-usable lunchbox and containers. Kid’s lunchboxes are not the only culprits. School canteens produce a lot of waste daily, that potentially could have been reduced or recycled in the school some way. What You Need For a Nude Food Lunchbox – Reusable container with removable compartments to divide up food. – Plastic or metal drinks bottle for your liquids. – Separate containers with air tight lids, to fill with yogurts or dips. Things to Avoid – Plastic wrap, foil or zip locks bags. – Tetra pack drinks, yogurt pots and plastic wrapped cheese. – Single use plastic forks and spoons. – Prepackaged food i.e.; biscuits and chips. Tips for Nude Food Lunches . Try to encourage your child to eat fresh produce which is healthier for them, and produces less packaging. Apples sliced up, grapes and berries can all snugly fit into the lunchbox ,and will give them a healthy boost of energy. . If your child does enjoy the pre-packaged chips or nuts, buy these in bulk to save on packaging. Another great option is to show your child how to bake veggie chips using parsnip, sweet potato and beetroot – healthy and fun to make. . Choose fruit and veggies that are in season. Seasonal produce will be easier on the budget and friendlier to the environment. . Try to involve your child in the nude food lunch packing. Explain why you are giving them certain things and how it will help them and the environment. Making it fun will encourage them to carry on these good practices in the future. Nude Food Activities for Schools Discussing nude food and its benefits at school from a young age will create good habits in the students for a healthier, more environmentally friendly future. After discussing nude food, teachers could challenge the kids to discuss how they could reduce packaging in their lunchboxes, and then draw pictures of how they will do it. Older students could compare prices of buying in bulk over small single packets. They could investigate how much extra packaging is used for the single serve packs, and any hidden costs. Teachers could have the kids investigating their canteen menu and what packaging is used. Using a brainstorming session, the kids can develop ideas on how to reduce this extra waste or recycle it. They can investigate systems available onsite for recycling. Having a compost bin for food scraps, which can be used on a school garden or even a worm farm, could be a fun idea. After putting their nude food findings into practice, a great idea is getting the kids to report on what they found in the form of posters and leaflets, which could be distributed around the local area. The kid’s experiences can then have a positive effect on the whole community, and be a driving factor in a healthier, cleaner tomorrow.
