Sprinting out of the car, slamming the doors, and leaving the windows open, my friends book it to the day’s choice of lunch. Whether it is Rocco’s, Joe’s Taco Lounge, Harmony, or Mill Valley Market, my friends are eager to be first in line so they can devour their much awaited food. I, on the other hand, stroll casually to the restaurant. Maybe I take a detour to the Whole Foods next door to grab a couple dollars worth of snacks; I’m thinking a bag of chips and a cookie. Either way I’m in no rush. I packed a lunch. You should too.

First I’d like to start with some numbers. Depending on where you like to eat, lunch can vary in price around Mill Valley. Being the cheapest at around $5.00, lunch can often reach close to $15.00. Even so, if you were to spend only $8.00 on lunch each day of the school week, the amount of money you spend over the course of the year is mind-blowing. You would spend close to $6000 over the course of high school, this money could instead have been used saving up for a decent used car.

Although money is a good enough reason by itself, there are many other perks to switching to a packed lunch. Especially in places like Rocco’s and Harmony, lunch can often be an overload of grease, lacking the nutrients a healthy teen needs to push his way through the school day. With packed lunches, the freedom to design a lunch that is tasty and also healthy is much greater.

In addition to health, the variety and control over what you eat is extraordinary. The number of different things you can fix up are endless. Whether you want a good old sandwich or want to stick some hot soup in a thermos, you are guaranteed to never get bored with what you eat. Outside of the main dish you can also slide some excellent snacks in there. I recommend adding some extras to eat in class when if feels as if lunch will never arrive. Packing a lunch can also do an excellent job of making sure you aren’t wasting any food. Often I will take my leftovers from the night before as my lunch, and we all know leftovers are even better than the original dinner.

The tricks to packing a lunch are simple. The first thing you need to do is ensure that you have the staples. This can include, but is not limited to: a lunch box, copious amounts of tupperwares, a thermos, and an ice pack. After, you must plan out when you will be making your lunch. I recommend preparing it the night before to prevent stress and ensure you don’t bail in the morning and resort to buying a lunch. Finally you must make sure you are making a variety of lunches. Getting bored is the worst thing that can happen. One of the best strategies to prevent this is to every once in awhile buy yourself a cheap drink or snack at the nearest store.

If packing a lunch is out of the question, the Hungry Hawk is also an option. Convenient and low-priced the Hungry Hawk is often overlooked.

Regardless, the amount of teenagers that are buying themselves a lunch five days a week, not including the money they spend on breakfast and dinner over the weekend, is ridiculous. This waste of money is easily preventable, but occurs on a large scale, especially in affluent Mill Valley. Packing a lunch is not childish and is not something to be made fun of. Rather, it is something to be proud of and should be encouraged by all.