Skip flavoring the water – if kids don’t get used to it, they won’t want it. Our daughter thankfully doesn’t like pop, and is happy with water in her lunch, or sometimes milk.

Skip the plasticware, pack silverware. Taking the school’s flatware and napkins is like stealing salt and pepper packets to use at home. I bought stainless sporks to pack in lunches. Actually, I bought these
http://splayds.com/index.html
which gets you eight of them. They’re a little pricey, but they are very heavy-duty, essentially a buy-it-once item. Part of the name relates to ‘blades’ – they are not sharp-edged, but can still be used to cut something that doesn’t really require a knife, and the edge is straight enough to work well for this. We use them at home too, and do sometimes pack spoons in our lunches depending on what we’re having.

http://remogeneralstore.com/pages/item.cfm has better pictures. There is also now a smaller, dessert version of them.

The real reason for packing lunches is that the nutrition of most school lunches is questionable. Also, if your child is even a little bit picky, you can give them a fruit and veg you know they will eat, rather than having them buy and then toss overcooked green beans. When we have a dinner our daughter really likes, we always ask if she’d like it for lunch, then put it in the fridge in a container in which it can be nuked, then packed in a wide-mouth insulated jar. Putting whatever it is and the veg that goes with it in a dish it can be heated in saves time in the morning. Invest in the containers you need to pack lunches. It will pay off in both dollars and nutrition.