Packing School Lunches?

Here’s Your Ultimate Grocery List for Easy, Balanced Meals

Are you running out of ideas for packing your kids' school lunches? I’ve got you covered! My school lunch packing grocery list is packed with staples that will make lunch prep easier and ensure variety.

With these essentials, you’ll have everything you need for non-sandwich lunch ideas, fun wraps, and snackable options.

Here’s the Basics of What to Stock Up On:

• Grains: Keep whole wheat bread, tortillas, and snack crackers on hand for easy, balanced meals.

• Proteins: Sliced lunch meats, cheese sticks, and yogurt will add protein power.

• Fresh Fruits & Veggies: Apples, grapes, carrots, and bell peppers for variety.

Keep reading for all the details about what you need to keep on hand for easy school lunch packing.

Prefer an easy printable?

Download my grocery checklist and start packing lunches your kids will actually eat!

The details:

I’ve been packing school lunches for my kids for over 10 years now, and sharing those lunches on social media. One of the most frequent questions I get is about my grocery lists. What staples I keep on hand, what I keep in my pantry, what do I buy for school lunches, etc.

Keep reading for all the detail on everything you need to be ready for easy school lunch packing.

I've mentioned in my lunch posts before that I try to follow the basic food pyramid or "My Plate" guidelines for my lunches.

That means in every lunch I try to have a protein, a fruit, a veggie, a grain, and usually some dairy. For my non meat eaters, the dairy is often also the protein. 

I don't always manage to get every category in there, but that is my goal. And I don't do it just because it makes a well balanced meal.

I do it because following a simple formula actually makes it easier to pack a good lunch.

You don't have to think about it quite as much - just grab one thing from each category and you're good. 

Once you have a simple formula to follow, lunch packing is even easier to accomplish if you have the right things to work with.

The right tools + the right food = easy lunch packing.

My favorite lunch box is the EasyLunchboxes. This is a simple and classic bento box style that makes lunch packing quick and easy. I have a whole post with all of my favorite lunch packing products here, or if you really want to make it easy, I’ve put all my favorites in an Amazon shopping list for you.

My school lunch grocery list includes staples from each of the basic food group categories.

Each section below goes into detail about what is on my list and why, but if you just want to get straight to the basic list you can download a printable version.

My printable list is also a great way to get your kids involved in figuring out what to pack - print out the list and give a copy to each child. Have them check off the things that they want in their lunch.

My rule is that I want them to choose at least 3 from each category, that way I have some options to choose from when I pack their lunch. I actually also have a simple printable for that on my downloads page.

My basic advice for stocking your fridge and pantry for easy lunch packing is to just make sure you have a little bit of variety from each the food groups, and you'll be good to go. With a few different choices in each group, you can make limitless combinations and lunch will never get boring. 

Here are the detailed grocery lists: 

Remember, I have four kids in school and a husband who often takes lunch, so I might keep more on hand than most. If you just want to get to the printable click here. 

Grains:

• Bread for sandwiches: Some kind of whole wheat bread at a minimum. Plus a few other kinds of breads for variety - rolls or biscuits, English muffins, bagels, etc.

• Tortillas: These are great for quesadillas, burritos, wraps, pinwheels.

• Crackers:  A variety of crackers for packing in the "lunchable" type of lunches. 

• Snack crackers: little savory snack crackers are a great side. We usually have some form of goldfish, or Cheez-it, cheddar bunnies, little rice crackers, etc. 

• Granola bars: My kids seem to get tired of any one kind of granola or cereal bar really fast, so I'm always looking for different choices. 

• Cereal: Cheerios or other 'snackable' type of breakfast cereals (Chex, Puffins, Kix, etc.)

Proteins:

• Sliced lunchmeat: At least turkey and ham, and occasionally I will buy roast beef, pastrami, or salami. 

• Blocks of cheese: I always have at least one big block of cheddar cheese in my fridge. We slice it for sandwiches, cut in cubes for more of a snack box type lunch, and shred it for quesadillas, nachos, burritos. 

• Packaged snack cheeses: cheese sticks, those round Babybel cheeses, we love the little cheddar Tillamoos from Tillamook, sometimes other shapes and sizes. 

• Nut butters: Peanut butter, almond butter.  If you do have a nut free school, then you can substitute SunButter (sunflower seed butter) in anything that you would otherwise use peanut butter for. My kids can't tell the difference.

• Yogurt: yogurt tubes, little cups of yogurt, or big cartons. I like to have a few flavors for easy packing, and I also always have plain yogurt. Plain yogurt is great with honey and berries, but it also makes a really great substitute for sour cream - you can give them tortilla chips and plain yogurt, and if you get a good strained greek yogurt then they are getting a decent amount of protein.

Fresh fruit:

I try to always have a little variety of fruit. Some of the year it's a lot of oranges and apples, depending on what's in season. 

• Apples

• Grapes (different colors)

• Oranges (the little Cuties, or other easy to peel varieties)

• Bananas

• Grapes

• If berries are in season, those are always on my list. 

• Any other seasonal and fresh fruits

Fresh veggies:

Veggies are seriously hit and miss here, as I'm sure they are with most kids.

But my kids are getting better and better about it - after many years of putting it in their lunch. Each of my kids has a different type of raw veggie that they will consistently eat, so I try to always have each of their favorites.

• Carrots

• Cucumbers 

• Cherry tomatoes

• Red and orange sweet bell peppers

• Lettuce or other salad greens

• Celery

• Sugar snap peas

Condiments and Spreads:

• Jam or jelly or fruit spreads

• Mayonnaise

• Cream cheese

Snacky things and other stuff:

• Cookies - we go for the less sweet varieties for school: grahams, animal crackers, most of the little Annie's bunny snack cookies.

• Nuts

• Dried fruits - raisins, cranberries

• Fruit sauce - applesauce pouches

Enjoy!

Here is the printable list.

You can click here or click on the image below. Use it as an inventory list, or a shopping list, or a menu - whatever works for you! I hope you find it helpful!