Hi there, welcome back to the podcast. Today I'm talking about a topic that I get asked about quite a lot. And that is how to help your kids fit in at school, when they're vegan, and most of the other kids that they know aren't, or maybe even all of the other kids, it is really important that we do try to make sure that our kids are fitting in, even though they're not eating the same food as their peers and their friends. Because this is one of the biggest reasons why kids actually decide that they don't want to be vegan anymore. I do see I see this question a lot in Facebook groups and things where people parents think that their kids don't care about animals anymore. But the reality is, most kids just want to be able to fit in with their friends. And when they're vegan, and it means that they're missing out on things at school, they're not getting to eat the food that their friends are having. Maybe they have to go places and they don't actually get any food. I know that my kids often when they go out with friends end up only being able to have hot chips, while their friends are having all kinds of other fun things. And maybe they miss out on birthday cake, or other things like that. And so it's really that kids are seeing that being vegan means that they miss out on all these cool fun foods, and activities with their friends. Not that they've decided that they don't care about animals anymore. So if we can make sure that our kids do feel like they fit in with their peers and their friends and they're not missing out, then there is a much greater chance they're actually going to stay vegan long term. So I've put together a list of my top five tips for helping your kids fit in at school. So the first one to look at is what you're packing in their lunch boxes, I really recommend that you pack really similar foods to the kid what their friends are eating at school. Now I'm not saying that you have to do something exactly the same. I know that some of my kids, some of their friends had a lot more kind of packaged foods than I was comfortable with. So I'm not saying you have to equal it. And to be honest, it is quite difficult to find a vegan equivalent for everything. Especially when you're looking at packaged foods. I still haven't found an option for less snacks, even though my seven year old, desperately wanted to be able to have low snacks like his friends, but just pack similar styles of food. So if your child's friends are all having sandwiches and cakes and fruit will then give them sandwiches and cakes and fruit sort of thing. If your child's friend has muesli bars will make them some muesli bars, I have some recipes on my blog for muesli bars. So yeah, you can make vegan equivalents of most things apart from low snack, as I said. And just you know, there's things like vegan cheese, vegan ham, you can make pretty good equivalents of what their friends are having quite easily these days with all the vegan options. So really, what I'm trying to say here is, rather than trying to make exactly the same thing, just try to give them similar styles of food. So if your kids friends are having, as I said sandwiches and cakes, don't send them, send them to school every day with like a thermos of soup or curries or those sorts of foods that are really different so that then they're going to feel like they're really different from their friends. Of course, as your child is gets more comfortable with being vegan, they might actually decide they're really like those types of foods, and they won't care if it's different to what their friends are eating. But when you're first starting out, and when you're trying to make sure your kids are feeling okay with being vegan, make sure they have similar types of food. Now, the next step from that, if you don't want to be giving your child similar foods to their friends and trying to copy their friends. The next step up is to make their lunchboxes super cool. And make them have the lunchboxes that all the other kids are looking at and going oh wow, that looks so good. So when I mean I homeschool now, but when my kids were going to school, that's the tactic I took. My son used to have pizza every week. I have in the lunchbox fault there's a really high iron high zinc pizza base recipe that I use. So he used to have pizza every week, I used to give him brownies, cookies, cakes, all of them boosted with iron and zinc, as well. And so they were really, really healthy but really cool looking lunchboxes, and I ended up having lots of the school moms actually approaching me asking for the recipes or asking for me to make them for their kids as well. So this was even though they were vegan, they knew I was vegan. But their kids just thought my son's lunchboxes were so awesome that they wanted those foods. So then all of a sudden, you're turning your vegan child into like the cool kid with the awesome school lunches. So of course, they're going to feel like they're fitting in at school, because everyone is really excited to see what they've got in their lunch each day. Now, if you want help trying to come up with ideas, that's where my lunchbox vault feagan Lunchbox vault came about was basically where I put together plans with all of these recipes that I use, so that you can make really cool awesome lunchboxes for your kids. And they're also designed so that they're really quick and easy to put together on the weekends in about an hour. So you can kind of freeze it ahead and then just grab it out each day. And it's really quick and easy to pack lunches. So if you want more information on the vegan lunch box vault, to get some more exciting recipes for your kids. I've put the link down in the show notes below. So make sure you check that one out. So the next thing, once you've kind of got their lunchboxes sorted out, the next thing to do is to approach their teacher. Now I know that when my kids were at school, I really thought that because I'd put their vegan on the medical forms, then the teacher would just know. But that wasn't the case. So I really had to sit down with the teacher each year, and make sure that she they knew that my kids were vegan. And it's sort of it depends on each year, sometimes the teachers were really great. And they were happy to just make sure they had vegan options. Other times, they were really overwhelmed, and didn't really know what to do about it. But they were happy for me to kind of bring in substitutes for the kids, as long as they could give me a heads up. So you I think the teachers sort of vary each year. And so sometimes you'll find a teacher that's really great to work with and really flexible. Other times, you'll find a teacher who's not so great or not so easy to work with, I guess. But they really should let you be able to bring in things or send in things for your kids. Now, I also found that some teachers had non food based rewards for their for kids. Whereas others used food based rewards like lollies and stuff, which I did have to be a bit more proactive about. So again, that's another thing, that's a really good idea to check in with the teacher to just kind of see how much food is going to be a thing at schools. So the two main ways that food is really going to show up for kids is firstly when it comes to birthday parties. So when my kids were at a school where cakes would be brought in for school birthdays, what I got the teacher to do was actually store a couple of cupcakes in the freezer for my son. So she could just grab those out and cupcakes freeze really well the icing doesn't as well. But the cupcake itself freezes really well. So she was able to just grab one of those out anytime there was a birthday party. And then she just let me know, I think I put about five in at a time. And she just let me know when it was running low so that I could make sure there are enough through the year. So that way my son got to have a cupcake anytime another child was having a birthday. Now I did actually use a Funfetti. So that's the one with the sprinkles inside it a funfetti cake recipe because I figured that that's a bit more fun than a plain cupcake. Because I think doesn't freeze as well. But just put your child's favorite flavor of cake in there so that they know that they're getting something that they really like. And if it turns out that the other cake has a flavor they really wouldn't like well, they're better off then anyway, aren't they really? Now When my kids went into primary school, and got higher up in the grades, cakes became less of a thing. And they actually switched to ice blocks, which was such a good idea because I spoke ice blocks are far more sort of allergy and dietary friendly than cupcakes. So I really recommend, see if you can talk to the school or the teacher and kind of encourage that or even talk to some of the other friends, parents, as well, because ice blocks, you can just get the plain lemonade ice blocks tend to be vegan, and they're much better. And then all the kids can have an ice block then, and there's no worries. So yeah, and as my kids had the option, I really started to encourage them to have ice blocks over cupcakes, because it was just easier and more allergy friendly. So the other spot you're going to run into food at school tends to be if the teachers give food based rewards. And so I found a real mix with this. We had a lot of the teachers wouldn't do food based rewards, but sometimes they did. So when the teachers tend to do that I explained to them that most lollies aren't actually vegan. And so they had stickers rather than lollies for my kids. But I didn't want my kids to feel like they were really missing out that they just got a sticker when the other kids got lollies. And so what I tended to do was I would have something at home that I was happy to have as a treat. To be honest, I wasn't happy with my kids having as many lollies as the teacher was giving out anyway. So I tended to have something else that they saw as a treat at home. And so I had that. So they would come home and they'd show me their sticker. And then I would give them the treats so that way they know that although they aren't getting the lollies that the other kids at school are getting, they are still getting a sticker, which was cool. And they knew that they would get something exciting after school as well. So I really recommend that you come up with a way that they can feel like they're still getting the treat that they would miss out on on at school, but come up with a way that works for you. I mean, if you just have an ice block at home, or even a cupcake or something or like a protein bowl, something that they really like, that's a bit healthier than just lollies all the time, then you can still make it just as exciting and just as special for them. Even though they're not getting the lollies at school. And another place that was a bit interesting was the kids tended to do some cooking at my school. So they they wouldn't make cakes and biscuits and things in at school. In my kids younger years, it was really good that the parents could actually come in and we actually had a couple of vegan parents. So the majority of the food actually tended to be vegan. Also, I was friends with a lot of the parents. And as I will mention later, in one of my other tips, they knew that my kids were vegan, so they always made sure that they were vegan options, or that the food that they were cooking was actually vegan. So that didn't tend to be a problem until my kids went to primary school in the upper level upper years of primary school, then it was a bit more of a problem, but I just made sure that they didn't have it and then we'd actually make the equivalent at home that was vegan. I think that if you're able to go into school a bit more, when my kids were doing this, it was during COVID. So parents weren't allowed in as much. But I would really recommend if you can have a really good relationship with the teacher, then you can actually probably go in and help out with these cooking days. And even give them some vegan options as well. Or just send in some vegan ingredients for your kids too. As I said, I wasn't able to do that because it was COVID which really got in the way of things. But yeah, that would be a really good way to make sure that the cooking activities and stuff are vegan for your kids too. Now another place that can be tricky for your kids at school is the school canteen. I know I've heard of some people who have amazing vegan options in their school canteen, which is really great Mikey Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of vegan options. And my youngest, especially really used to feel like he was missing out because he couldn't really get much from the canteen, whereas his friends could. My eldest especially had a problem when he went into upper primary, where they stopped. Kids were then in charge of the canteen. So when my kids were in lower primary, parents used to do the order and send it in, whereas kids could just go in and get their own thing when they were in upper primary. And so my poor son went in on his first day, and he had absolutely no idea what was actually vegan options. And unfortunately, nor did the canteen staff either. S o what I recommend doing there is really work hard to get a copy of the menu, it took me a lot of effort to get one. But yeah, get a copy of the menu, and then go through it with your child to show them exactly what the vegan options are. And then that way, next time, when they go in, then they will have no problems. And they'll just be able to pick what they know they can eat. And they won't really feel like the kind of sticking out like my son did. So yeah, so I went through that with my son. And then he was fine. He didn't order from the canteen very often, because there just weren't many good vegan options. But the times when he did go in, he was able to go in with his friends. And he was just able to grab a packet of plain chips or something and be able to fit in. Obviously, if you do the orders yourself, then you can just go through and just give them which options they have for what's vegan on the menu, and then do the order something if there aren't many options, then I really recommend having a special food day each week so that maybe the other kids in the class get lunch or on Fridays or something. So give your child something super exciting to put in their lunchbox on Fridays so that they get to have that excitement as well. And the other thing is because I know that we often end up using lunch orders when we're really busy, and we haven't had a chance to prep ahead. So my lunchbox vault has a whole heap of super easy pantry food that you can have for those times when you don't get a chance to prep ahead. So it has, it has two things it has where it teaches you how to prep ahead on the weekend so that you can just grab something from the freezer and pack it. But then for those weeks where life gets away from you, which I know do happen, it also has a bunch of things that you can actually just keep in the pantry or in the fridge in the fridge and Now the final thing to do to help your kids fit in at school just throw them in so that lunch boxes are really easy then to so is make sure that their friends parents know that they're vegan. This was something that I did, I was really nervous about telling that means that you then aren't depending on the canteen for people because I was worried that, you know, some of the super busy days. parents would be like, Oh, that's just too much for me. I don't want your kids being friends with my kids and stuff. But all of my kids friends were really lovely and so supportive. None of them were vegan. I have a few who were vegan curious. I have a few of their friends, parents who have absolutely no idea about how to do vegan. But they were all so helpful and so supportive and went out of their way to make sure that my kids always had vegan options in things. So it meant that sleepovers and stuff whether I needed to bring food or whether I actually I didn't often need to bring food. They would just check with me what they needed to make sure they had for my kids. And then it was even at school. We had some school events where I wasn't able to make it and their pet. My kids friends parents were there and they made sure that there were vegan options for my kids. So I really recommend that you Make sure that their friends parents know. Because in the most part, they will be really supportive and really helpful. And honestly, if they aren't really supportive and helpful, then they may not be sort of the kids who you want your kids to be friends with anyway, really so. Yeah. So yeah, they're basically my tips there, what I've done through school that really helped my kids, my kids never felt like they really stuck out because they were vegan. And they never had a really big thing where they felt like they were missing out a lot either. It does take some effort. But it really does help our kids feel better and give them better self esteem, and much happier about being vegan. S o as I said, really focus on their lunchboxes and make sure that they're having similar lunchboxes to their friends. If you can't do that, just make their lunchboxes super cool. It's always a really good tactic. Also, make sure you talk to the teacher and get the canteen figured out as well, which can be surprisingly tricky. And also make sure that their friends parents all know as well. So you can get support there as well. So that's all I've got for today. And as I said, if you need my help with your lunch boxes, then the vegan lunch box vault is a really good resource for that. So you get 20 weeks of plans which teach which gives you weekly lunchbox recipes with full nutrition breakdown so you know that your kids are getting everything they need. They also have freeze ahead and prep ahead plans each week to add a full shopping list for you as well. They're fully customizable. There's over 200 recipes in there. I add more periodically as well. So there are heaps of different options and your kids will definitely find something that they love in there. Even the super fussiest of kids will find something I promise. So you can find out more about that in the link below. So make sure you go check that up. And next week I will be back with more lunchbox info. I'll be talking about how to make lunchboxes super quick and super easy.