Your plane has been delayed for 2 hours and the kids are starving. You had planned to feed them with the breakfast service on the flight (rare these days, I know), but that's out.
But you are not worried because you're a modern travelling mom who's planned for every possible outcome.
These days, in-flight meal service can be quite sporadic, if it exists at all. You can buy food items on many flights, but if your children are anything like mine, they need constant feeding and watering, which means - PICNIC!
As if you didn't have enough to worry about packing, now you need to plan, pack and carry a picnic menu to feed your family's hungry mouths. Perhaps even before, during and after the flight!
Picnic-packing success is all about the planning ahead of time. Key considerations include; the time of day of your flight or travel, food likes and dislikes, food allergies, and practicality.
If you're booked on a red-eye or night flight to Europe, you do not need to pack a three-course meal. A few snacks should cover it.
If you're travelling during the day and especially over a meal-time, items of more sustenance are really needed, accompanied by your choice of smaller snacks. We've had success with cold pizza, cheese, Nutella or peanut-butter sandwiches on firm, whole-grain bread, and home-made cheese quesadillas. I shy away from meat products due to concerns about potential spoilage, and avoid tuna or egg salad for those reasons. It's worth noting that your seat mates won't be too impressed as soon as the smell of tuna hits their nose either. Be a considerate traveller - it should be a golden rule.
Liquid items are out unless you buy them in the airport once you've cleared security. We always pack empty water bottles to fill once we've done that, or you can buy water at an airport kiosk. Most airlines are pretty good with in-flight drinks service, but it never seems frequent enough to keep us all hydrated.
Favourite Snacks to Pack
Here's a list of some of our favourite snacks to pack.
Granola, chocolate or energy bars, dried cereal (i.e. cheerios), cheese-strings, beef jerky or dried pepperoni sticks, crackers, cheese popcorn, sesame snacks, baby carrots, celery, dried fruit, fruit leather, real-fruit gummies, hard candy or lollipops, bubble-gum (*this can really help if the kids suffer from ear-pain on the descent)
Best Left at Home
Soft fruit: mushed pear in the bottom of your backpack? Yuck.
Meat products: unless they are dried (i.e. jerky), too prone to potential spoilage.
Over-processed pre-packaged snacks: Too artificial, too much sodium, too much fat.
Packing Your Picnic
You might wish to divide up some of the food items to lessen the load on you. Individual Ziploc bags are really handy and keep things in tidy order. Give each family member a small food bag to fit into their backpack or shoulder bag if possible, with the proviso that they have to share what's inside with everyone else of course! (This can be difficult if Skittles or Smarties are involved.)
[travellingmom tip: We like to pack some special snack items that we don't normally have in the house for our trips, like hard candies or chocolates, as a special treat for the kids. They pack well and provide some good energy when needed.]
Photo credit: Pepperidge Farm.