Hi Swami,

I'll ask my Z when he's home from school. He's really keen to write to your Z btw!

The packed lunches I send him to school with are all vegan and mostly raw - some cooked hoummous sometimes. Usually lots of fruit, veg sticks, olives, tomatoes, raw cookies and crackers. I don't think his friends particularly question him, but he does give them bits of cookies and flax crackers to taste and they go down really well, even with the ham sandwich brigade. I think his confidence in the diet helps - my friend's seven year old daughter is desperately embarrassed by her 'healthy' packed lunches and wants to take crisps etc to fit in.

Z is really interested in the food that the other kids are eating and often reports back in horror that some of his friends seem to live off crisps and chocolate. He does challenge them on eating meat (as some of their parents have pointed out to me! Eek!) and has a few of them wanting to be vegetarian. He's definitely a leader at the moment, long may it continue.

When we have Z's friends round for tea, I do bowls of fruit and veg (including courgetti which is always fun) and dips. I then warm up wholemeal pitta breads and encourage them to fill them with whatever they like. This goes down well with the fussiest eaters as they can just choose the bits they like and there's no pressure on them to clear their plates.

ggxx

Hi goji girl.  Thanks so much for both your replies (and thanks to Z too!). 

He sounds similar to my Zak in his horror of other children's lunches.  At Zak's previous school the lunches were not allowed to be pre-packaged.  All the children had to bring their lunch in multi layered metal lunch tins so there would be no packaging, plastic wrap etc.  Children were not allowed to bring junk food.  At the new school there are no guidelines and apparently a lot of children come to school with their bags of chips, cookies, sugar-laden bars etc. and Zak is horrified. 

I think Zak challenges others on their meat eating as well...he tells them about the cruelty of the meat and dairy industry.  I got into trouble for it once.  We had been protesting at a World Meat Congress in Brisbane, which Zak really got into, and the following week he took some "Go Vegan" brochures to school to educate his friends (I didn't know he was doing this).  I got a call from the teacher to come and see him, and he told me that Zak had given this brochure to one of his friends and the mother had complained about how distressing it was (so she could keep feeding her child dead animal parts without feeling guilty, no doubt). 

Great that our two Z's will be penpals!! 

Thanks for the lunchbox ideas too. 

Love,

swami xx