Packing Meals and Snacks for Student Athletes

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Student athletes lead hectic lives, often juggling practices before and after school, along with traveling long distances for games or meets, sometimes returning home late at night. Providing balanced and appealing meals and snacks that fulfill their nutritional needs can be a challenge. Include various food groups like grains, lean protein, low-fat dairy, as well as fruits and vegetables. If the meal includes perishable items such as lunch meat, eggs, cheese, yogurt, or cut fruits and veggies, ensure they are kept cold with ice packs and stored in a cooler or insulated lunch bag. Here are ideas:

Protein	Dairy	Grains	Fruits	Vegetables
Jerky	String cheese	Whole grain crackers	Fresh fruit - apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, berries	Cucumber slices
Hard-boiled eggs	Yogurt	Dry cereal	Dried fruit - raisins, cranberries, apricots, mango	Carrot or celery sticks
Nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashew, peanuts) or peanut/nut butters	Cottage cheese	Rice cakes	100% fruit juice	Bell pepper slices
Seeds - sunflower, pumpkin	Plain or flavored milk	Pretzels	Freeze dried fruit	Cherry or grape tomatoes
Lunch meat	Sliced cheese	Granola bars	Applesauce	Sugar snap peas

Combine food groups to build satisfying snacks. Be creative! Here are suggestions to get you started:

Tortilla topped with peanut butter or nut butter and banana slices
Trail mix made with nuts, seeds, dried fruit and whole grain cereal
Yogurt with fresh or frozen berries and granola
Turkey or ham and a slice of cheese rolled around a pretzel rod
Vegetables with hummus or ranch dressing
Apple with peanut butter or nut butter
Turkey, ham and/or cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread
Low-fat cottage cheese with fruit and crackers
Fruit smoothie made with yogurt or milk (works well to freeze ahead of time and let thaw in a cooler)
Energy bites (see recipe below)