Packed Lunch: Guidelines for Preparing Nutritious Packed Lunch for School Children

PACKED LUNCH: GUIDELINES FOR PREPARING NUTRITIOUS PACKED LUNCH FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN

Packed lunch has become a necessity for school children as it is not possible to have lunch at home. Packed lunch is a lunch in a tiffin box to be eaten by the child while away from home.

Points to be considered while planning packed lunches are:

·        It should meet one third of the day’s nutritional requirements.

·        It should include food from all the four food groups though the number of dishes may be less.

·        Food stuffs providing good quality protein like egg, milk or milk products like paneer or curd would improve overall protein quality in combination with vegetable protein.

·        At least one serving of green leafy veg-etables should be included.

·        One fruit or vegetable salad may be in-cluded every day.

·        Variety should be present.

·        Preferably the food packed should be different from that prepared for breakfast.

·        The dishes should be packed in the right consistency so as to avoid leakage or food becoming dry during lunch which may not be appetising to the child.

·        Following are two examples of a packed lunch.

Vegetable peas pulao, onion raita, boiled egg, banana.

Vegetable dhal rice, amaranth porial, soya gravy, and butter milk.