School snacks/lunches and food safety

[NYCVeg]

Dd is starting full-day nursery school this summer. Because she has very extensive food allergies, we'll be sending all her food from home. She arrives at 8:30 am and has snack mid-morning, lunch at noon, and another snack around 2:30. The classroom doesn't have a refrigerator (they might be able to refrigerate her food elsewhere, but I don't want to create extra work for the teachers if I can help it--they already have to do a lot to accommodate her). We have a Bento lunchbox, so I can get pretty creative.

I'm trying to figure out what to send to avoid food spoilage issues. For lunch I might do the following sorts of main dishes:
*sunbutter and jelly sandwich
*turkey and cheese sandwich
*cream cheese and veggie (or turkey) sandwich
*hummus (no tahini) and veggie sandwich
*pasta salad
*"deconstructed" nachos: refried beans, tortilla chips, guac, cheese, and veggies
*quinoa salad (w/ black beans, scallions, corn, and bell peppers, plus a lemon dressing)

Will all of that be okay without refrigeration from 8:30 to noon? What about dairy based dips? Will the guac brown?

And, for snacks...things like fruit and cheese are fine if they're unrefrigerated all day, right? They will be in ziploc bags or sealed tupperware containers.

How do people keep apple slices from browning? Dd won't eat them if they're tossed with lemon juice, but when I've tried tossing with OJ, they still brown. Maybe I'm not using enough?

Any other ideas? (Dd is allergic to wheat/gluten, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts, fish and shellfish, peas and lentils, sesame, coconut, soy, and tomatoes.)

[noobmom]

Personally, I wouldn't set out deli meat for 4 hours at room temp for a small child. For an adult or an older child I would be ok with it, but small children have weaker immune systems. Can you throw an icepack into her lunch bag? Also, sometimes you can freeze or partially freeze the food so that it'll be cold, but defrosted in time for lunch. I admit that I don't trust deli meat as much in general, so I may be more careful with it than others. I'd probably be fine with say, homemade roast chicken sandwich if it was wrapped with an icepack.

I think any veggie sandwiches or salads and cheese would be fine. The guac will probably turn brown, but it doesn't really hurt anything. When you pack it, pressing some plastic wrap directly onto the surface will keep it from turning brown. My DS eats apples whole, I don't know if that's an option for you. Does your DD even care if the apple slices are brown? I don't think it makes the food any less safe. I think in general your list is a great one! Have you ever been to the website Vegan Lunchbox ? She gets pretty fancy with her son's bento boxes, but it may be a good source of inspiration for you. If nothing else, the pictures are pretty!

[WC_hapamama]

What type of bento box are you using? I've found that with the plastic bento boxes, using those little lunch box sized ice packs works pretty well.

Things like fruit and carrot sticks tend to do okay at room temperature, but most cheeses do not... unless you have a kiddo that likes Parmesan.

[Justmee]

Hummos goes bad fairly quickly, I wouldn't send it without refridgeration.

[Justmee]

Three bean salad, I have a lentil burger recipe you can sub canned beans for if you are interested. Falafal balls with whatever kind of glutten free bread you are giving her.

[LaughingHyena]

We use an insulated lunch bag and now it's hotter I've been including a frozen something each day. Yoghurt tubes, juice/water (I put her cup in the freezer overnight)

I have been known to make sandwiches with frozen bread when I forget to defost it. I've always been a bit worried that it won't defrost by lunch but DD has not complained.

For sliced apples etc I sprinkle on a little lemon juice to stop the browning.