School Lunch for Vegan Kids: Tips and Strategies

If youâ€™re packing school lunch for an older child or teen who has chosen to go vegan, chances are theyâ€™re going to feel more adventurous and excited about what they eat for lunch. I mean, packing a spectacular vegan lunch that fills your coworkers or friends with envy is great fun – itâ€™s great to see the look on their faces when they realize that your wonderful-looking, incredibly tasty food is all cruelty-free and vegan! So much for the image of vegan deprivation and suffering that they had!



I get very excited about trying new dishes from all around the world, and Iâ€™m sure a lot of you do, too. But not everyone does. So what Iâ€™d like to talk about today is the idea of â€œfitting in,â€ or peer pressure.

But what if youâ€™re the parent of a younger child thatâ€™s going to school? I think there are two basic attitudes school kids can take towards their lunches. Well, probably each individual has a bit of both attitudes in them, depending on the mood and day.

Peer pressure

Some vegan kids donâ€™t care what anyone else at school is eating. In fact, if theyâ€™re life-long vegans, they might even feel repulsed by what the other kids are eating!! They know that what their parents have packed them is out-of-this-world tasty, itâ€™s kind to animals, itâ€™s good for them, and theyâ€™re going to enjoy it no matter what. On my sonâ€™s first day of school, he asked for sushi in his lunch box. At the end of the school year, he voted Chinese stir-fried tofu and green beans with rice and a sweet bean dumpling as his very favorite meal of the year!

But for most of us most of the time, peer pressure can have a significant impact on what our kids want to eat at school. In my experience, many younger children attending public school want nothing more than to just fit in. They might be embarrassed to eat the foods they eat happily at home when theyâ€™re in a school setting. One of my friends reports that her son loves V8 juice at home, but wonâ€™t even go near it at school, afraid of what his friends might say.

“Undercover” vegan

There are so many lunches that you can pack that mimic traditional kidsâ€™ food, while being healthier and cruelty-free. For example, one of my sonâ€™s favorite meals is pepperoni pizza. Now, our version of pepperoni pizza is made on a multigrain whole wheat crust, topped with a homemade tomato sauce that I make with fresh tomatoes, basil, cooked kale and carrots (itâ€™s blended together smooth so you would never guess those extra healthy vegetables are in there). I top it with some vegan cheese and pepperoni. Now I know that veggie pepperoni and vegan cheese are more processed and higher in sodium than I would like, but they still have no cholesterol and less fat than regular pepperoni and cheese, and I consider it an acceptable compromise. Heâ€™s got the same type of pizza that all his friends eat, only healthier and cruelty-free, so heâ€™s fitting in and not feeling left out.

There are all kinds of foods that are perfect for going into stealth vegan mode like this â€” vegan chicken nuggets, deli slices, soy yogurt, you name it. I like to say, â€œAnything you can do, I can do vegan.â€

Fitting in while sticking to your values

At school, sometimes itâ€™s really all about fitting in. Someone on a discussion board I read once described witnessing a vegan kid in their childâ€™s class. â€œWe have a vegan kid at our school, and his mother not only doesnâ€™t allow meat or meat products, but she also doesnâ€™t allow the child to have milk or any dairy products at all. Whenever there is a birthday party for another child, poor thing behaves like a raccoon on a camping trip, grabbing cake out of other childrenâ€™s hands and scuttling off into a corner to eat it like a wild animal before one of the teachers takes it away from him. Itâ€™s really a spectacle to watch.â€

Okay. Obviously, this person doesnâ€™t know much about veganism, so this has been really their first exposure to the concept of no meat or dairy. Itâ€™s not a pretty picture, is it? No one wants this to be their child. As a vegan parent, you want the best for your kids. You donâ€™t want them to feel left out or deprived, or that being vegan is a punishment or a hardship. You certainly donâ€™t want them scuttling around like raccoons!

Looking out for your kids

So this is where as vegan moms and dads, itâ€™s our job to look out for our children. Pay attention to whatâ€™s happening in your kidâ€™s classroom, and be ready with vegan alternatives when itâ€™s time for those birthday cupcakes and candy bars!! Bake a batch of vegan cookies or cupcakes and freeze them in individual plastic bags. That way youâ€™ll always have something on hand to send to school or to parties. Or give your childâ€™s teacher a special stash of his or her favorite vegan cookies or candies to hand out to them at treat time.

In this climate of unhealthy eating, where do you stand? People are just starting to wake up to what weâ€™re doing to our selves and our children with our unhealthy eating habits. The obesity rate is growing, and itâ€™s going to take health-conscious parents standing up for our childrenâ€™s health in order for things to change. In other words, if eating fresh vegetables is wrong, Lord, I donâ€™t want to be right!

Jennifer McCann is known for the popular blog Vegan Lunch Box and the book* of the same name, as well as its sequel, Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

*This post contains affiliate links. If the product is purchased by linking through this review, VegKitchen receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!