Recently Miss B started waging a concerted campaign to take a storebought box lunch or “instant children’s meal” to school on occasion. For anyone who’s unfamiliar with these, it’s a prepackaged single lunch serving of, say, crackers, deli meat, and cheese. Sometimes there’s a juice pouch thrown in, or a small candy bar. Sometimes the main component is a pre-made sandwich, or a do-it-yourself mini pizza. In every case there is a considerable markup on the price of the individual components, and little control on the part of the purchaser over how the foods are processed and packaged. (Really, the only control you have is over whether or not to buy one. Once you are past that, your options are pretty limited.) One major food producer in the US has a monopoly on these products (at least where I live) and they are marketed directly to children. A number of Miss B’s classmates bring them to school regularly, so she’s been seeing a lot of them and was intrigued.
