We all want to send our kids off to school with a lunchbox full of healthy, tasty and nutritious food, but finding inspiration can be a challenge.

At the market you’ll find plenty of fresh ideas for lunchboxes: nutrient rich, locally grown and produced real whole foods, free from additives, preservatives and unnecessary packaging, and a much healthier choice than all of those processed snack foods.

Here are some great ideas for filling kids’ lunchboxes:

Fruit and vegetables: There are some delicious winter fruits available at the markets now. Try some of these: Cut up apple, mandarin, orange, banana, strawberries, custard apple or blueberries. For the veggies, try bite size cherry tomatoes, snow peas, sprouts, avocado or cucumber and carrot sticks. Add a dip for extra flavour – Baraka Foods and Spice Palace both make yummy fresh preservative free dips including hummus, and beetroot dip.

Bread:  Heart Bread have a variety of wholesome organic and preservative-free breads to suit every taste, from white organic sourdough to seeded and wholegrain. Slice your bread, store it in the freezer and get it out as you need it though the week.

Snacks: Try Heart Breads’ spelt flour fruit buns, Grumpy Grandma’s popular dried olives, plain sugar free yoghurt from Nimbin Valley Dairy, a Rainbow Fruit Flat (a real fruit leather made from 100 percent fruit), home made pikelets from Witches Broomstick or boil an egg laid by one of the happy chickens at Possum Creek Eggs.

Pre-made lunches: If you want a day off from sandwiches, try a mini quiche or home made sausage roll from Witches’ Broomstick, or a tasty vegetable tart from Spice Palace.