Ideas for Eco-Friendly Mishloach Manot

February 11, 2014
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In some communities, it may feel like “keeping up with the Greenbergs” requires wasteful quantities of cellophane, ribbon, and styrofoam for your mishloach manot packages!  But regardless of your community, you can create healthy, earth-friendly, beautiful and economical mishloach manot for Purim.  

To help you, Canfei Nesharim has developed a selection of five eco-friendly and fun themed package ideas for you or your group to prepare and distribute this Purim.   The five packages are the following – click your choice or scroll down to browse them all:

 

 

Mishloach Manot Ideas

To make this as easy as possible, we found many of the products on the web and included a price key to help you track costs.  You can order products directly by clicking the links below!  Suggested items are organized by the blessing said on them (since the mitzvah is to include at least one item from at least two different blessing categories).  Feel free to personalize the packages to suit your needs.  {Many thanks to Stephanie Frumkin for preparing this information.}

Kashrut Note: While every effort has been taken to include only Kosher items, Heksharim do change, so please always check for up-to-date information. Dairy items listed are not necessarily “Chalav Yisrael.”Packing Suggestions:
  • All the food and non-food items are to be packaged in a either a reusable container such as a washing cup or baseball cap or a biodegradable disposable container.
  • To keep items in place you may want to use a pretty handkerchief, kitchen towel, or bandana to either line the container or to wrap the container up and tie it with string or a ribbon.
  • You can fill in extra space in the container by shredding (with a paper shredder or scissors) colorful old magazines or newspaper comics.
  • Another option is to use whole, in the shell nuts as “packing peanuts.” You may want to also include anutcracker.
Price Key:
¢ = $.50 or less
¢¢ = $1.00 or less
$ = $2.00 or less
$$ = $3.00 or less
$$$ = more than $3.00

 

Lunch Break

Choose One Container Option:


Choose One Mezonot Bracha Option:

Choose One HaEitz/HaAdamah Bracha Option:

  • Newman’s Own®Organics California Raisins, 1.5 oz. Box ¢
  • Organic or Locally Grown Fruit (in its own wrapper): apple, clementine, orange, pear, banana, pomegranate, or coconut (can be found at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or your local health food store or farmer’s market) ¢


Choose Two Shehakol Bracha Options:

Choose One Non-Food Item (Optional):

 

Health Nut

Choose One Container Option:

  • Large coffee mug (from your local dollar store) ¢¢

Choose One Mezonot Bracha Option:

Choose One HaEitz/HaAdamah Bracha Option:

  • Mixed Nuts in Shell ¢
  • Organic or Locally Grown Fruit (in own wrapper): apple, clementine, orange, pear, banana, pomegranate, coconut (can be found at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or your local health food store or farmer’s market) ¢
  • Galil Organic Roasted Chestnuts, 3.5 oz. Pouch $

Choose One or Two Shehakol Bracha Options:

Choose One or Two Non-Food Items (Optional):

 

Cold Kit

Choose One Container Option:
  • Tissue Boxes – Collect used tissue boxes, cut on one side to open, and tape up after filling with goods. If you need to purchase tissues boxes, Kleenex brand makes large, pretty floral boxes and may be available at your local Costco (not online) in bulk. You may want to roll up some tissues and tie with a colored string (or put in biodegradable baggies) and include them in the Mishloach Manot packages. Leftover tissues may be used as Shabbat toilet tissue. ¢
  • Bagasse Soup Bowls ¢
  • Bagasse Bowl Lids ¢
  • Bioplastic Soup Bowls
  • Reusable Soup Bowl (from your local dollar store) ¢¢
  • Large Coffee Mug (from your local dollar store) ¢¢

Choose One Mezonot Bracha Option:

Choose One HaEitz Bracha Option:

  • Organic or Locally Grown Clementine or Orange (for extra vitamin C) ¢

Choose Two Shehakol Bracha Options:

Choose One or Two Non-Food Items (Optional):

 

Pesach Welcome Kit

Note: The goal of this Pesach Welcome Kit was to provide items which would help you prepare for Pesach — and not add more chametz to your kitchen!  However, we found it extremely difficult to find healthy or organic Pesach foods, especially in time for Purim.  We’ve listed the ideas we came up with; we welcome your suggestions!
Choose One Container Option:

Choose One (or none) HaMotzei Bracha Option:

  • Organic Kosher for Passover Matzah (may be ordered from your local kosher grocery store—Yehuda or other brands)

Choose One (or none) HaGefen Bracha Option:

Choose One Mezonot Bracha Option:

  • Streit’s Matzo Crackers, Organic Cracker, Round (may be ordered from your local grocery store that carries Streit’s products)

Choose One or Two HaEitz/HaAdamah Bracha Options:

  • Mixed Nuts in Shell ¢¢
  • Organic or Locally Grown Fruit (in own wrapper): apple, clementine, orange, pear, banana, pomegranate, coconut (can be found at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or your local health food store or farmer’s market) ¢
  • Ancient Harvest Organic Quinoa (must be checked prior to Pesach) $$

Choose One or Two Shehakol Bracha Options:

Choose One or Two Non-Food Items (Intended for Pesach cleaning):

 

The Blessing of the Sun

This package includes sun-oriented items which can help you look forward to spring and summer.  Accordingly, the items including have a “sunny” theme, with names or shapes that reminded us of the sun.  (In order to meet this goal, we sometimes compromised and chose non-organic products for this package.  We noted where this is the case; you can choose whether you’d like to do the same.)

Choose One Container Option:

Choose One Mezonot Bracha Option:

Choose One or Two HaEitz/HaAdamah Bracha Options:

Choose One or Two Shehakol Bracha Options:

Choose One Non-Food Item (optional):

 

Wishing everyone a Chag Sameach and an environmentally-friendly holiday!! 

Purim