Lunch Club. What an amazing idea.

If you haven’t heard of a Lunch Club, the basic premise is that a group of like-minded workmates supply lunches for the group. Imagine having to think of and prepare lunch once a week, while also getting some wonderful variety and nutrition every day.

You may have noticed the meal preparation images that are abundant on social media – we’ve even posted some ourselves. This is where you set aside some time on one day to shop, chop, peel, prepare, cook and pack your meals for the week ahead. It’s a great idea and it works to support your dietary goals.

The only difference between individual meal prep and a Lunch Club is that it’s easier to get variety with the Lunch Club: instead of eating one meal five times, you eat five meals once!

Of course, the Lunch Club concept has plenty of potential problems, but getting your group together to negotiate rules and guidelines will go a long way to eliminating problems. See here for 6 primary tips you need to consider.

What if you don’t have enough (any?) like-minded workmates? Get a group together at Healthy Inspirations, your tennis club, a church group, or even at school drop-off or pick-up. You won’t eat together each day but can still benefit from each other’s culinary efforts.

• Advertise the idea, including a time to meet to discuss the concept.
• Meet and talk through the rules. As an organiser, have your desired rules in place so that you have a starting point. As an example, you don’t want to have to tailor meals to individual’s vegan, low-carb, and low-FODMAP diets – it’s simply too much effort (and would require three separate meals) so the Lunch Club won’t last. Equally, if one member supplies a simple tuna salad while another does truffle-crusted eye fillets, it’s not going to work for long. The key is to ensure that each member of the group has similar dietary requirements and expectations.
• If eating together, decide on the day each Lunch Club member will supply the meal. If eating separately, meals need to be supplied in containers that individuals can take home and freeze if necessary.
• Let’s say you have 5 members in your Lunch Club. Each person purchases a set of 5 lunch containers – dictate the brand and size – to supply the lunches for other group members. This makes it easy to supply lunches and there is no concern about collecting containers back again.
• Plan your lunch for the week, get cooking, and divide between the containers.
• Deliver and enjoy.

We’d love to hear how your Lunch Club goes.