Save the planet—and keep kids safe—with a totally boss lunch box.

The year is 1974; the place, Schallenberger Elementary. I’m rockin’ my flowered corduroy jumper, white tights, black patent Mary Janes—and my lunch box, the lunch box—is Holly Hobbie. I’m pretty sure I might faint with the exhilaration of it all, except then not only would I miss lunch but I might look stupid in front of Seth Barnaby, the grimy, sandy-haired boy on whom I’ve got a raging crush. Steady, girl.

Lunch boxes didn’t used to be so cool. In fact, back in the late 1800s, when blue-collar workers brought their midday meal in metal pails, it revealed that they weren’t rich enough to buy a hot lunch. But their kids didn’t care—they just wanted to be like Dad, so they fashioned their own lunch pails out of biscuit or cookie tins. And merchants took notice: The first kids’ lunch box came out in 1902, a picnic basket–shaped box with lithographed pictures of children on its sides. In the 1930s, Mickey Mouse appeared on the first character-licensed lunch box; by the 1950s, Aladdin Industries was selling boxes with Hopalong Cassidy stamped on them. The rest, as they say, is history—Barbie, Barney, Bigfoot, you name it. Those old boxes may even be valuable: In 2003, a mint-condition metal Isolina lunch box, manufactured in 1954, sold at auction for more than $11,000.

Nowadays, the modern equivalent of those old-timey square metal lunchboxes shows off retro chic while being eco-friendly, economical, and high in the cuteness factor—which everyone knows goes a long way toward making lunch palatable, especially for picky eaters. And of course, the East Bay—first in all things green—offers plenty of places to pick up today’s delightful-yet-responsible lunchwear.

Green gold

It goes without saying that lunch box materials should be nontoxic. What you’re looking for is a container that’s free of lead and chemicals often used in plastic water and baby bottles: phthalates, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and bisphenol A (BPA).

In part due to a dearth of nontoxic lunch boxes, Berkeley resident Renata Bodon launched her online lunch supply company, One Small Step, after her daughter started preschool in 2005.

“They told us we had to provide a waste-free lunch, and I had no idea how to do that,” she says. “I found a container that was a good size for a preschooler, and used that for a while, but I was concerned about the plastic. Eventually I started One Small Step so that parents could go to one website and find all kinds of environmentally friendly, safe lunch box options.”

Eating eco has now become a habit in her family, Bodon says.

“It’s about educating your children about different ways of doing things,” she says. “You’re investing in a waste-free future.”

But packing waste-free doesn’t just pay off for the environment—to the tune of 67 pounds of lunchtime trash per child each year, or about 10 tons per year for the average elementary school—it also saves you money. If a disposable lunch costs four bucks a day, that adds up to over $700 per year, while a waste-free lunch costs more like $2.50 per day, or $475 per year. Who doesn’t want to squirrel away more than $200 instead of lining the landfill with hard-earned cash?

What’s more is that those adorable lunch boxes provide excellent data for parents puzzled about their children’s eating habits, says Bodon.

“You know what they’re eating because they have to bring [the containers back] home,” she says. “Last year, my daughter’s school started composting, and I was helping sort the trash. I was finding whole lunches thrown out, sandwiches perfectly wrapped in their aluminum foil! I started arriving hungry and helping myself.”

Pack ’em with pride

One Small Step offers a boggling range of lunch box options, from soft-sided insulated bags to hard case bento-style kits. Check out Built NY’s Munchler lunch backpacks ($15) or bags ($10), which come in colored animal styles such as tiger, rabbit, or puppy; the backpack has straps for easy transport to and from school. Each style unzips into a placemat, too. Citizen Pip makes soft-sided lunch boxes out of recyclable, nonwoven polypropylene with aluminum-lined polyethylene insulation. Designs include a skater-dude skull, a sport motif, and dainty polka dots. The boxes come with an aluminum name plate and a carabiner that attaches to a backpack.

For artist types, check out Enchantmints stainless steel lunch boxes ($12) with embossed fairies, ballerinas, whales, horses, or fish—Five Little Monkeys on Solano Avenue and The Ark on Fourth Street in Berkeley also stock them—or Byndoo’s Goodbyn, which comes in a variety of colors and includes washable stickers kids can use to personalize their box.

It’s not just the outside of the lunch that’s worth attention, by the way. One Small Step also carries alternatives to plastic sandwich bags (SnackTAXI sandwich or snack sacks in colorful prints, $9 or $7) and bamboo or stainless steel utensils (Bambu spork, $4, Citizen Pip steel fork and spoon set, $5, or Onyx stainless steel drink straws, $3).

Oakland’s Rockridge Kids carries lots of lunch options, including Mimi the Sardine’s waste-free lunch kit (with a lunch bag, two fabric napkins, and two stainless steel food containers, $54.50), Semilla snack bags (a snack kit boasts a lunch bag, two fabric snack bags, a stainless steel food container, and a cloth napkin, $43.50), Wildkin or Crocodile Creek soft-sided square lunch bags—designs range from trains, camo, and butterflies to robots, ladybugs, and astronauts ($17.99), as well as Oré laminated cotton lunch sacks ($15.50).

Not only do parents want lunch gear that’s not toxic, they want gear that lasts, says Nishan Shepard, owner of Rockridge Kids.

“The PVA and phthalates that have historically been in lunchboxes are very scary to parents,” Shepard says. “We’ve gone out of our way to find small companies that don’t use these toxic plastics. Sure, the cost of some of these kits can be high, but most people feel that the extra money is worth it, especially if they can find something that can be used by more than one kid in the family.”

For kids who like to take their favorite video stars to school, stop by Snippety Crickets on Solano: In addition to providing countless first haircuts to East Bay toddlers, the salon stocks PecoWare lunch kits, including Bob the Builder or Thomas the Tank Engine versions. Each kit includes an 11.5-ounce canteen and a double-deck sandwich container, as well as a nifty front panel that clips open and is big enough to accommodate another sandwich or to tuck away a secret goodie for your child ($17). Mr. Mopps on Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Berkeley offers soft-sided Melissa and Doug lunch bags designed as a turtle or butterfly; the pack’s double-pull zippers open out for easy food access ($10).

Just need some cool containers? Visit Tokyo Fish Market in Berkeley, which offers fanciful one-compartment carriers shaped like ducks, pigs, frogs, or pandas ($12). A Berkeley institution since the 1960s, Tokyo Fish Market also carries eco-friendly bamboo utensils and bowls in subtle shades of green, gold, and rust, and stackable stainless-steel containers in a range of sizes. Once you’ve chosen your container, shop the market for great stuff to put in it—soba noodles, Pocky chocolate cracker sticks, silky mochi, even pickled vegetables.

Check out Whole Foods in Berkeley and Oakland for Laptop Lunch’s Bento Buddies food containers ($13). Whole Foods also carries Laptop’s bento kits in frilly flower or shocking green alien patterns for about $40—you can fill them from the bulk food aisle.

Berkeley’s Ecology Center has a variety of stainless steel tiffin containers (the term originated in British India as a word for “lunch”). The San Pablo Avenue shop also carries Lunchbots snack ovals or rounds ($15 to $20 per piece); To-Go Ware’s round two- and three-tier lunch kits and single snack holders ($5 to $25); and Eco Lunchbox’s oval or square sets ($22).

Finally, take a look at REI’s Go Box series of coolers, bags, and boxes in vibrant shades of red, purple, or green ($10.50 to $16.50). And if you’re packing a feast for the whole family, REI also carries Picnic at Ascot’s Santa Cruz set for two or four (melamine plates, acrylic goblets, stainless steel utensils, and napkins, $40 or $60) or its Eco Picnic Backpack, which includes a blanket ($80 and $99).

Try not to kill the kid

So you’ve got the kitty-shaped PVC-, phthalates- and BPA-free lunch box for your princess and it’s crammed with all kinds of delicious morsels she’s sure to inhale in the 12 minutes she has to eat, now that the schools have been snipping away at recess. Final word? Safety. Bacteria live long and multiply at temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees, so keep hot stuff hot and cold stuff cold. Use an ice pack for foods like meat (including hot dogs), fish, poultry, cooked veggies and beans, rice, milk, and salad dressings. Yogurt, hard cheese, peanut butter, baked goods, pickles and mustard, beef jerky, canned food, and raw fruits and vegetables are fine at room temperature. If you’re packing chili or soup, make sure you’ve got an insulated container that will keep it nice and toasty.

Last but not least: Keep that box clean by wiping it down each day after use with a vinegar-and-water combination and letting it air dry. Or if you’ve got a soft-side lunch bag, pop it into the wash every once in a while. Either way, you’ll avoid that toe-jam-plus-rotten-egg smell that can infuse even the cutest lunch containers—a sure buzz kill when it comes time to eat (not to mention a veritable germ paradise).

The power of the box

For better or worse, lunch boxes become part of a kid’s backstory, a tangible detail that serves as a precise reminder of growing up. Back in ’74, that Holly Hobbie box was just what I wanted, with its blue trim and the pictures of the girl herself in patchwork dresses, her curly red hair sticking out of a cap. I still remember the pleasure of opening the box and lifting out a fragrant, slightly smashed peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the note from Mom I’d sometimes find nestled under my food, the satisfying clank of the latch when lunch was over.

These days, kids have a whole new world of lunch box designs to ponder—and whatever they choose, their childhood memories can be created without dribbling toxic yuck into their food or the planet. Pack ’em with pride!

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Kate Madden Yee lives in Oakland. Thus far in her illustrious parenting career, she estimates that she’s made more than 2,000 school lunches.

Lunch It Up

The Ark, 1812 Fourth St., Berkeley, (510) 849-1930; thearktoys.com.
Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., Suite H, Berkeley, (510) 548-2220; ecologycenter.org.
Five Little Monkeys, 1224 Solano Ave., Albany, (510) 528-4411; 5littlemonkeys.com.
Mr. Mopps, 1405 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley, (510) 525-9633; mrmopps.net.
One Small Step; onesmallstep.com.
REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley, (510) 527-4140; rei.com.
Rockridge Kids, 5511 College Ave., Oakland, (510) 601-5437; rockridgekidsstore.com.
Snippety Crickets, 1753 Solano Ave., Berkeley, (510) 527-3987.
Tokyo Fish Market, 1220 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley, (510) 524-7243; tokyofish.net.
Whole Foods, 3000 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley, (510) 649-1333; 230 Bay Place, Oakland, (510) 834-9800; wholefoodsmarket.com.