by Joyce Slaton posted in Products

If all you're packing for your child's lunch is a PBJ and an apple, you can put it in any old bag. But that's not the way most little kids eat lunch. They don't want a sandwich, they want a whole bunch of little things that are a godawful pain to pack: hummus and melon and noodles and yogurt and crackers, everything dripping all over everything else in a non-little-kid approved manner.
So for years I've searched for a lunchbox that would keep everything separate, hot (or cold!), and tidy. The hunt proved difficult. I could throw a bunch of separate plastic (or steel) containers in a bag, but anything liquid-y tended to seep out over the course of a day, and the containers kept getting lost.
For a while, bento boxes worked well for my daughter. They're small, they're light, they hold the right amount of food, and they have dividers that keep dry items like crackers, nuts, and rice separate.
Our favorite My Neighbor Totoro bento, $20)
But the dividers don't keep wet stuff separate -- if I packed, say, apple slices, by lunchtime the crackers would be stale. They also don't keep anything hot or cold, so I didn't feel safe packing meat. So next we moved on to a Thermos:

Thermos 16-ounce Food Jar with Spoon, $19.99)
This one keeps soup, stews, and spaghetti nice and warm, and it has a fold-up spoon in the lid (which can be used as a serving bowl!). But if you want to bring anything other than what's in the Thermos, you have to bring a separ...