• 2 slices whole wheat bread
• 1 tbsp. peanut butter  (or almond butter)
• 1 banana

Spread a thin layer of peanut butter onto one side of each slice of bread. Place banana slices onto the peanut butter, and place the other peanut buttered side of bread on top.

Add in other nutritional items in the sack lunch: an apple, carrot or celery sticks, or other healthy food items your child enjoys.

Or...

Banana, nana, bananas

Bananas originated in India and other Southeast Asian areas. In 327 B.C., Arab conquerors took bananas to the west, and bananas found their way into Asia Minor and Africa and finally into the New World, taken to the Caribbean.

an by explorers and missionaries.

Antonius Musa, the personal physician to Roman emperor Octavius Augustus, is credited with promoting cultivation of the banana. This was from 63 to 14 B.C.

The average American consumes 28 pounds of bananas a year.

There are some tough challenges facing the banana industry--the cutting of rain forests and use of pesticides--but solutions are underway. To learn more, visit these web sites:

• A brief history of the banana.
• The history of the banana as a food.
• Banana

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