The Unexpected: healthy lunches = teasing at school. Help!

There are many different things that pop up unexpectedly when you try to live in a sustainable, healthy manner.  Things that you would never expect to be an issue.  But because we are choosing to live a lifestyle that is slightly more alternative than the majority of the people around us, we should have expected this one.  Kids can be cruel.  Kids at school, when trapped in a classroom together, can and will make fun of each other.  I know this, because I have been a teacher for years.  I have also been a child in the school system.  But I don't recall anyone making fun of my lunches. 

My son is eight years old.  He takes his lunch to school in a stainless steel lunch box from ecolunchboxes.  He also has a Foogo thermos that holds and keeps leftovers warm, and a Kleen Kanteen stainless steel water bottle.  (I might add, according to him, he is the only child in his class to have a litterless lunch).  I don't give him processed meat for lunch and since the school has a nut-free policy he doesn't take peanut butter sandwiches.  That limits us a bit so he often takes leftovers.  He has also had hardboiled eggs, homemade bread, homemade muffins and cookies, dried fruit, fresh fruit, vegetables and dip, and so on.  He likes his lunches and I feel good about sending them with him since they are healthy, unprocessed, and in non-disposable containers.

In grade one he told me how another child stole his hard boiled egg and smashed it on the floor.  He also told me that he couldn't bring salmon or egg salad sandwiches anymore because the kids complain about the smell.  In grade 2 he told me he didn't want to take dried bananas anymore because the kids told him they looked gross.  And in grade 3 he told me that when the kids said "Ew what's that?  That looks disgusting." about his homemade chicken pot pie, he just closed his lunchbox and didn't eat at all.  I felt like crying when I heard that.  Then he confided to his dad that "carrot sticks are good and he likes them, but "Sean" gets a wagon wheel in his lunch every day".  And he told me that everyone has juice boxes except him.  He only has water in his water bottle. 

Now I am very capable of standing up for myself.  I am proud of the way we are living and I feel like I am doing the best I can at providing my children with healthy, safe food.  I cringe, though, at the thought of my child suffering teasing or mocking at the hands of his school mates due entirely to my doings, not his.  I can tell myself until I am blue in the face that it's ok to be different, and that in the big picture his health is more important, but I could cry thinking that my home cooking is putting a hardship on my children. 

It isn't that he never gets a treat in his lunch.  He (and his friends) love my homemade cookies, cinnamon buns, muffins and so on.  But I get the feeling that in order for him to fit in at lunch time I would have to fill his lunch with juice boxes, prepackaged snacks, sandwiches with processed meat and store-bought bread, and pre-packaged yogurts.  When I think of doing that I get angry and frustrated.  I don't want to change something I am proud of just so my child fits in. 

I haven't come across a solution, however.  I spoke to the principal the first time it happened but nothing changed and he didn't talk to the class about respecting others' food as I hoped he would.  The teachers are not in the room at the time, and while there are lunch time supervisors, there aren't enough for one in each classroom so the children are on their own much of the lunch break.  I could inform parents of better lunch alternatives (including packaging) but convenience speaks louder than anything in most cases and I am not into taking on the world right now.   (Just my blog readers!!)  I would love to hear your ideas or suggestions.  Just, please don't recommend I home-school my kids!  That is a choice we have already made.

This post has been linked up with The Homestead Barn Hop.