Sandwich for Daycamp Lunch (Nut Free) ? Not Refrigerated

Just partially freeze a small water bottle or a juice box, that will act as an ice pack and keep the lunch cool :)

I would find a lunch box or lunch sack that Does have room for a Small icepack. Think how much nicer lunch would be on a hot day if it was cool!
We use the very small ice packs and they come back home still cool.

First of all - THANK YOU! My son is one of those kids who "of course" has a severe peanut allergy and inconveniences the parents of the other children in his activities. Thank you for following the rules to keep those kiddos safe, even if you don't like it. I have seen my son swell up, heard his airway close, and watch his lips turn blue within minutes of someone giving him an innocent-looking snack cracker at Bible study. I have had to inject him with an Epi-Pen three times. My fears are greater than your inconveniences and I appreciate that you "get" that.

At picnic-type functions we usually do "sticks lunch" for him. A beef stick (sold at our local meat counter or you can get them in packages), a string cheese stick, carrot sticks, pretzel sticks, and apple sticks squirted with a little bit of lemon juice so they don't turn brown. He loves it!

For the cereal and oatmeal bar you're planning to send (or the pretzels if you do our "sticks lunch") make sure to look just underneath the ingredients list on the package and make sure they don't contain peanuts, tree nuts (which are things like almonds, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, etc. that grow on trees), and that they're not "manufactured on the same equipment as" or "packaged in the same facility as" or "may contain traces of" any nuts. You don't want to take a chance of the allergic child "sharing" a bite.

Good luck and thanks again for being conscientious about this!

Are you sure the camp has banned peanut butter outright?
Some camps will have separate tables or lunch rooms, so peanut products are allowed.
That's what my son's camp does.
Ask them and find out.
Some people will substitute cream cheese for peanut butter, but it still needs to stay cold.
Yogurt needs to stay cold, but jello or pudding packs don't have to be.
It's tough finding some protein that doesn't need to stay cold and a lot of other lunch choices are full of sugar, salt and carbohydrates.

Muffins? When I was a kid, my mother always gave me muffins for lunch. Loved them! She'd do zucchini/oatmeal. With a yogurt on the side, you have a nice main.

"Of course" , you should be grateful your inconvience doesn't include having a child with a severe food allergy.Really? Use an ice pack.

What about a peanut butter substitute such as sunflower seeds? For my son, I used a frozen water bottle to keep his lunch cool, and he could keep it to finish drinking after lunch as it continued to melt. I've also sent cold noodles, plain sushi rolls with shredded carrots, edamame, and frozen pudding.

My boys will roll beans and cheese into a tortilla to make a burrito. They have insulated lunch bags and can use a frozen capri sun or juice box in place of the blue ice. Only trouble is the lunch bag insulates so well that the juice is often still frozen at lunch time which means the it must have kept the sandwich cold, too.

We also never had icepacks in our lunches when I was a kid... I think we tend to go a bit nuts with refridgeration...

Anyways if you are packing a juicepack or waterbottle, you could freeze that and use instead of an icepack. Many schools with "no nuts" policies are ok with soy or sun butter as well (made of soy beans or sunflower seeds) and you could substitute that for PB.
Boiled eggs, tube yoghurt (freeze ahead) and tofu also go a long way for protein and keeping your kids full.
Good luck!

When I was a kid, I brought my lunch to school every day and I never had an ice pack. I never got sick, so I think it's ok to make a sandwich in the morning and eat it for lunch without refrigerating it in between, especially if it's going to be kept inside a building.

For the record, even if you made PB&J, the jelly technically should be refrigerated too, right?

Anyway, here are some suggestions:

Sunbutter & Jelly (sunbutter is nut free, just put a note in the lunchbox that it is sunbutter so the counselors know you are following the no nut policy)
Turkey, ham or any other lunch meat
Egg salad
Tuna salad
Chicken salad

You can also do lunchables as a main course. You can put in any kind of real fruit, not just dried fruit. Carrot or celery sticks make a good side as well.

I don't know anyone who used an ice pack when I was growing up. I don't plan to most days for my son, and he will be taking many of the items I've listed.

While they aren't the healthiest things ever, Cheese Whiz and processed cheese slices are both fine without refrigeration. Put it on whole wheat bread, with healthy sides it should be a balanced lunch. There are also peanut butter alternatives that provide protein such as pea butter and sun butter.

Bacon and cheese muffins or little quiche should he okay up to a day out of the fridge. We have also done sloppy Joe stuffed corn muffins. Wrapped in foil with a layer of paper toewl should keep it warm til lunch.

How about quesadillas? I started giving my kids that when they got tired of pb&j's. They loved them and wanted them every day for months LOL!

Dawn

An ice pack inside an insulated lunch bag works great. My son takes his lunch to school everyday like that and has never had food poisoning. But if you don't have such a lunch bag, then you can still do "PB&J" except substitute soy nut butter or sunbutter (made from sunflower seeds). I can buy them both at the Target near me.

Cheese does not have to be kept cool for such a short time period. We used to carry cheddar with us on canoe trip with no coolers and it was fine for a week.

Sunflower seed butter is a great alternative to peanut butter. Seed allergies are pretty rare so it's a safe option ( as opposed to almond butter, which could also cause reactions).

I'm with Ina--refrigeration is not always necessary. Things can be out for a few hours. I try to avoid having meat products out, because I am super paranoid about meat.

Whole foods sells a great black bean dip, which is mostly black beans and, I believe, is dairy-free (alleviating your food poisoning concerns). This would also be a great option, since it would give your kid some protein. Or you could make your own. It has black beans, lime juice, garlic, cumin, salt.

Take either the individually wrapped lunch meats or put a sandwich sized portion on a baggie & freeze it. Once lunch comes around it is thawed out but still cold. Then the kids can assemble their own sandwich. You can do the same with cheese.

Look for Sunbutter or Wowbutter -- they can be used as substitutes for PB. Sunbutter is made from sunflower seeds, and Wowbutter is made from roasted soybeas. Wowbutter (world's lamest name, though, imo!) does actually taste a lot like PB. I used to eat PB raw by the spoonful (that is how much I used to love PB), and I like Wowbutter enough to do the same (our son has a serious PB allergy allergy).

You can also do cheese sandwiches--they don't need to be kept cold, unless you add lunch meat. Just the cheese by itself is okay for a couple hours not kept cold.

Hummus and pita triangles might be okay, too.