All the Cool, Green Kids have a Kids Konserve Lunch Bag

Check out the Kids Konserve lunch bag giveaway below!

Who doesn’t  want to be the cool kid at school?  Reducing classroom waste is the new black.  So every kid will want a   Kids Konserve waste free lunch bag, which will significantly reduce your child’s school waste of aluminum tin foil, plastic baggies, paper bags, and juice boxes.   How much? Easily, on average, 67 lbs worth! Will the other kids be green with envy? Absolutely.

Founders, Chance Claxton and Lynn Julian, (pictured above at an NYC expo), are two moms on a mission, knowing first hand the amount of waste generated by their kids’ lunches.   In creating the Company, they wanted to empower children to make changes for the future.  What better way to do that, then by using one of their lunch bags to show them how they can impact the amount of waste generated at their schools?

So, what does a Kids Konserve lunch bag contain?

• An organic cotton lunch sack in white or in a caterpillar or butterfly print
• Stainless Steel beverage bottle
• 2 stainless steel containers with lids, which is great for storing grapes, apples, pretzel, nuts, chips, or any assorted food you desire.
• A food kozy, which is an easy fold-over sandwich wrap, with a Velcro fastener.  It is  made out of recycled, FDA approved, non-toxic, non-leaching, recyclable PE plastic. This product does not contain Bisphenol-A (BPA) and is Phthalate free.
• An organic napkin
• A recycled aluminum name tag

The signature white waste free lunch bag is priced at $40 and  the butterfly and caterpillar print lunch bag are priced at $42.   Additional items that can be purchased separately are:

• Drawstring Bag (4 for $25.00)
• Thermos, which is great for cold or warm food such as fruit salad or soups/pastas. Priced at $20.00
• 2 large tier tiffins (5″ by 4″)  for hot and cold items.  ( A tiffin is a small metal container with a lid that stack and snap together with a carrying strap or latch mechanism.) Priced at $25.oo

Note, a large tiffin and thermos will not fit together side by side in the bag.  Order a small tiffin  and the thermos so that you can put the two products together in the lunch bag. Best of all, if you want to create your own lunch bag, all products can be ordered separately. Different size beverage bottles are available for the thirsty kids.  Where are the products made?  All Kids Konserve products  are made in Asia, are fair trade and with suppliers that the founders  have a long standing relationship with.

So, how do I care for my Kids Konserve products?  Ask no further. The care instructions are on a tab in the product description.

So how did I rate the Company’s products?  My first thought was how could you keep your sandwich cold with a cotton bag?  Christy, a spokesperson for  the Company, told me to fill it up the bottle, and  put it in the refrigerator and then use this bottle to keep the sandwich cold.  I tested to see how long the bottle stayed cold while sitting on my countertop.  It definitely stayed cold for a few hours.   In the summer, the Company will be offering an insulated bag.

I  further experimented with the bottle and  turned it upside down for a while to see if it would leak.  It did not leak at all, unlike some of my other stainless steel beverage bottles.

I then filled up the containers with water to see if they would leak.   They leaked but they really aren’t for soup or food that has liquid in  it.  I did have problems taking off the lids.  As a disclaimer, I have weak hands.  Christy told me that the lids do loosen up after a few washings in the dishwasher or bend them back and forth to make them more pliable.

The food kozy easily fit the sandwich that I made. It takes two hands to close up the cozy.  My overall rating for lunch bag was very favorable. I also loved the environmental attributes and the attention paid to creating the website with its easy to follow information.

In addition to the lunch bag, the Company also sells  a Kids Konserve Party Pak, which is great for classroom parties.

“Imagine the mounds of landfill waste created by a classroom of 25 students having 4 holiday classroom parties and an average of 6 student birthday celebrations per school year. This would amount to upwards of 250 paper plates, cups and disposable cutlery in a single school year. Multiply this by an average school with 400 students and 16 classrooms and you arrive at an astonishing 4000 paper plates, cups, plastic forks, spoons and knives being tossed in to our ever growing landfills,” according to the Company.

The Pak consists  of 12 each of  7″ plates, 16oz tumblers, forks, knives, and spoons.  The products are made of 100% recycled #5  plastic from yogurt containers and are stored  in cotton drawstring bags.  (Remember when the PAK is  trashed, recycle them at your nearest Whole Food, Gimme 5 display.)  Christy further explained:

“I have gotten my son’s school to use them for classroom parties instead of signing up to bring paper goods. The kids love them and they have learned so much about not always going straight to the garbage with plates etc.. The plates, cups, and utensils are put in a box to be brought home (mom’s take turns sharing this job) for washing so it is ready for the next party. They have been a great hit for birthday parties, too!”

Don’t forget these Paks are great for  outdoor parties and picnics too! A set of 12 is priced at $35.00 and a set of 25 is priced at $55.00.

Even the fundraising options offered by the Company make it easy to go waste-free. See more information, here. There are two options. Either your school can receive 10% on all products purchased by school members or school members can receive a 10% discount for the products.  Either way, you will help to reduce waste with this feel good fundraiser.  

 What I love about the fundraiser is it is so easy.You can either have people send you the money and order at one time or the Kids Konserve people will list your school online for people to come at their leisure to buy products.  My school is doing “the online” concept for back to school.

In addition, the Company offers a bottle fundraiser to eliminate plastic bottles and juice boxes at your school.  All you need is a logo and a minimum order of 50 bottles.  See more information here.

My only wish for the Company is that they produce bags that are  for the tween and teenager crowd.  According to Christy, this is in development. 

Coming soon:

• insulated bags
• 25 oz beverage bottle
• utensils
• new patterns for the lunch bags

The folks at Kids Konserve have graciously donated the above signature lunch bag  to give away to one lucky Green Talk reader.   Here are the rules:

• You must be over 18 and live in the US.

• Leave me a comment here telling me about your favorite lunch  as a kid or adult.  If you don’t have one, just say so.

• To double your chances consider joining my Feedburner email list or subscribe to my RSS feed. Both subscriptions are listed on the upper right hand column. Be sure to come back and leave a separate additional comment to tell me which one you joined. If you are already a member, just say so.

• To triple  your chances of winning, twitter about this contest and come back and leave a separate additional comment of the url (weblink) of your twitter comment.

• You must enter by Friday,  May 22, 2009  6 PM EST  to win. A winner will be chosen at random on Monday, May 25, 2009.   Good Luck everyone!

Let’s help Kids Konserve reduce waste, one lunch bag at a time!

Similar Posts:

• Laptop Lunches: Meet Waste Free Lunch Box
• Portion Control Help with Laptop Lunch Boxes
• TerraCycle turns your Frito-Lay Wrappers into Chic Tote Bags
• The Lunch Sak, Kooling off the Earth a Kid’s Way
• Can Eating Your Food Cold Reduce the Energy Crisis?

Tagged as: children lunchbag, Kids Konserve, reduce waste, waste free lunches