Food for airplanes and airports

Here at Thirty Thousand Feet, we previously mentioned the GoPicnic ready-to-eat boxed meals as an option for feeding yourself on flights where the carrier doesn’t really consider food as part of the service. (See my post, Need food on that airline flight?) Well, the good folks at GoPicnic sent us six Go Meals to try out and I thought I’d report on the product.

First, a review of just what these things are. Simply put, they are shelf-stable meals that feature high quality natural and organic foods. These are not meant to compete with the military MRE’s that survivalists have squirreled away in the cellar – they don’t have that kind of shelf life. (And they don’t taste like that stuff either!) Think instead of collections of single-serving, packaged food items conveniently assembled into a handy little box.

GoPicnic offers over 25 different meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Air travelers will appreciate the vegetarian, kosher, gluten-free, and Halal options, as well as the fact that the box size is very handy for slipping into a computer bag or carry-on.

Recently my wife and I returned home late and didn’t want to spend time creating some kind of dinner, so we grabbed the GoPicnic boxes to see what might look good. I selected the GoEnjoy meal (fruit & cheese) and my wife snatched the GoDelight box (sunbutter & jam).

The first thing I noticed was the simple but highly intelligent way the box opens (and re-closes if you don’t eat everything.) I’m sort of a nut when it comes to packaging. So much stuff these days is hard to open and you end up making a mess of it just trying to get to the good things inside. These boxes open easily without glued cardboard shreds everywhere. They also open completely so you can get at everything inside, and they feature a handy tab closure that works.

Anyway, my box contained the following items: Mariani Ultimate Apricots, Geraldine’s Bodacious Cheese Straws, thin Lavish Grain Crackers (Flax & Honey), Copper Cowbell Asiago Gourmet Cheese, Mrs. May’s Cashew Crunch, and, for desert, Swiss Delicato Chocobloc Noir. Total calories: 440 (just 190 from fat) and no trans fats.

So how does this stuff taste? Yummy! It’s not cheap convenience store product. The GoPicnic folks have packaged up collections of quality food items that taste good and complement each other. Well done!

If I’m about to head to the airport for a flight where I’ll get either no food or crappy food, a GoPicnic box is an appealing option. This would also work well for those multi-leg trips where none of the flights seem to coincide with mealtime so you’re left on your own for food. Frequent flyers will know what I mean.

GoPicnic is a woman-owned company. The boxes are made from 100% recycled material, require no refrigeration to store or heating to eat, and the kids meals are 100% peanut free.

I think these are a great idea for air travelers, and they are reasonably priced. If I operated any kind of shop at an airport, I think I could sell a lot of them. Outside of air travel, these meals might appeal to event planners, transportation and tour companies, sporting event organizers, and just about any organization that wants to feed people easily and simply.

Understand that I have no interest (financial or otherwise) in GoPicnic. I just like the concept and I like the quality of the food. They have been so kind as to extended a special discount offer to Thirty Thousand Feet visitors: 25% off on your first order. Just use coupon code GPTHANKS.

www.gopicnic.com