our story

Engineering a great idea

 

The idea behind Contain This! started years ago when my dad was taking a cross-country plane trip and decided against packing a sandwich. When I asked him why, he responded, "I hate how soggy sandwiches get after sitting out for a few hours!" That's when I thought, "in this age of iphones and flat screen televisions, how are we still suffering from the age-old soggy sandwich problem?" I did my research and Perfect Sandwich was born!

We are committed to bringing you a great sandwich solution in Perfect Sandwich. Of equal importance to us is the delivery of a product with integrity, respect for the planet and a social consciousness into your home.
— Will Archie, Founder, ContainThis!

Contain This! is dedicated to providing food transport solutions that help you and your family enjoy the lunch you took so much time and money to prepare. We do this by creating products that keep wet and dry ingredients separate, fresh and cool until the last possible moment—just like at home. We have kicked off our product launch with Perfect Sandwich but expect more innovative products from us as we tackle other meal/snack items.

CONTAIN THIS! KEEPS FOOD AS FRESH AS IF I JUST MADE IT!
— Will's dad

Have a great idea for the next meal/snack combo that we should tackle? Send us an email via our contact form here. We'd love to hear from you!


Perfect Balance

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, aluminum foil and other plastic enclosures account for 400,000 tons of our nation’s municipal solid waste stream. Only 10% of that was recovered or recycled, leaving 360,000 tons of waste in the landfills.

At Contain This! we are not only committed to bringing you a great sandwich solution in Perfect Sandwich, but are also intent on delivering a product with integrity, respect for the planet and a social consciousness into your home.
— Will Archie, Founder

Perfect Sandwich eliminates the need for costly disposable bags, plastic and aluminum wraps, styrofoam and other food storage solutions by providing a reusable, self-cooling container to transport your food. When you choose Perfect Sandwich to transport lunches to school, work or play, you are doing your part to help save the environment.

Environmental issues can take years to reverse and effort on the part of us all is required to change our habits.

Incorporating Perfect Sandwich into your lifestyle makes for an easy answer to this challenge.


What makes us mad also motivate us

Our footprint on the planet

Each year the U.S. consumes over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, aluminum foil and other plastic enclosures account for 400,000 tons of our nation’s municipal solid waste stream. Only 10% of that was recovered or recycled, leaving 360,000 tons of waste in the landfills.

We are committed to bringing you a great sandwich solution in Perfect Sandwich.  Of equal importance to us is the delivery of a product with integrity, respect for the planet and a social consciousness into your home.
— Will Archie, Founder, ContainThis!

Lunch-time trash is second only to office paper as the leading source of school waste. It's also estimated that a disposable lunch costs $4.02 per day, versus $2.65 for a waste-free lunch."

Perfect Sandwich eliminates the need for costly disposable bags, plastic and aluminum wraps, styrofoam and other food storage solutions by providing a reusable, self-cooling container to transport your food. When you choose Perfect Sandwich to transport lunches to school, work or play, you are doing your part to help save the environment.

Environmental issues can take years to reverse and effort on the part of us all is required to change our habits. Incorporating Perfect Sandwich into your lifestyle makes for an easy answer to this challenge.


Nutrition in a Busy World

With Perfect Sandwich, a new twist on the old brown bag lunch could be your ticket to nutritional success during the day.  “Making a brown bag lunch is helpful because you can control what you put in it,” says Donna L. Weihofen, RD, MS, a nutritionist at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison. (www.everydayhealth.com)

You control the ingredients and therefore you control the calories and portion size that go into your Perfect Sandwich brown bag lunch. Since portion distortion, is a significant contributor to diet failure and weight gain, portions can be kept in check while keeping your ingredients from spoiling with the PerfectCHILL technology. Lunch becomes safer, easier and aides in weight control using the Perfect Sandwich - it’s the new way to “brown bag!”

Of course the right portions go hand-in-hand with the right nutrition. According to the USDA, children and adults need at least 3-4 ounces of grains, 1 cup for children and up to 3 cups for adults of vegetables, and 2 ounces or more of lean meats or vegetable protein for children and up to 5 ounces for adults. To ensure that these basic requirements are being met, a sandwich with whole grains, lots of colorful vegetables and lean protein is a good choice! If you have special dietary considerations such as packing a gluten-free, vegetarian or low-carbohydrate lunch, Perfect Sandwich makes it effortless to eat just what you want while on the go. “People consciously select foods with three things in mind:  health, taste, and convenience,” said Georgia Kostas, M.P.H., R.D., L.D., director of nutrition at the Cooper Clinic, a division of Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas. “Today’s consumers want foods that help them achieve healthier lifestyles without sacrificing time and taste, so sandwiches are a natural fit.”
Keep it fresh and made-to-YOUR-order in Perfect Sandwich!


You have a right to a healthy lifestyle

Perfect Sandwich has a mission to help families maintain a healthy lifestyle by understanding that home prepared meals are better for weight management, nutrition, and cost savings.  Sandwiches are often a natural fit when preparing on-the-go meals for yourself or school aged children.

Perfect Sandwich supports a healthier lifestyle for you and your family by providing a convenient way to pack nutritious sandwiches that stay as fresh as if you just made them.


Building Blocks: What Makes a Lunch Healthy?

Whole grains, fruits and vegetables (preferably one of each), calcium and lean protein are the components of a healthy lunch. As long as each group is represented in your child's lunch box, there’s a nutritive benefit.

The USDA recommends the following amounts for kids daily:

Six ounces of grains. The USDA suggests that at least half of the daily intake of grains be whole grains, but 100% is better. Whole grains contain fiber and vitamins that refined grains do not. Choose whole grain products when buying breads, tortillas, pastas and cereal. Also try serving brown rice, quinoa, whole barley, bulgur or buckwheat.

Two-and-a-half cups of vegetables and one-and-a-half cups of fruit. Ideally, your selections should be fresh and varied, since different fruits and vegetables offer different vitamins and nutrients. Include fruits and vegetables in a variety of colors, and buy what’s in season: apples in autumn, oranges in winter. Shop at local farmers markets or join a community supported agriculture (CSA) co-op that arranges regular food deliveries from a local farm. And try to make your produce organic whenever possible.

Three cups of milk (two cups for children two to eight years old) or an equivalent calcium source. Sources include lowfat milk and cheese, yogurt, non-genetically modified (non-GMO) calcium-fortified soy and dark, leafy greens.

Five ounces of lean protein. Use lean varieties of turkey, chicken and ham. Fatty fish such as fresh salmon and tuna are packed with healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Low-mercury canned tuna and antibiotic and hormone-free meats, both great choices, are sold in many supermarkets, even as store brands (such as ShopRite’s Reddington Farms label). Protein doesn't have to come from an animal source—legumes, non-GMO tofu and tempeh are all delicious alternatives.

Note that other food groups should be consumed in greater quantities than protein. “Healthy meals in general should focus on fruits, vegetables and grains,” says Mary Ellen Renna, MD, a board-certified pediatrician, nutritionist and author of Growing Up Healthy the Next Generation Way. “We should think of meats and proteins more as a condiment. Kids really do get plenty of protein—and adults even more so.”


The world we live in

In addition to saving money and conserving your health, we also want to take care of the world we live in.

Did you know that if every school-age child adopted a waste-free lunch (including finishing all of their food), more than 3.5 billion pounds of trash would be diverted from our landfills each year?  Plus using disposable items costs more: $245 more per year than a waste-free lunch!

Each year, the U.S. consumes over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps that end up in landfills and worse, in our waterways.  Do your part to help the environment.   Send less waste to the trash and reduce your carbon footprint!