A permanent marker is all you need.

The most reliable way to keep a lunch box from getting lost is to write your child’s last name and your phone number on the bottom with a permanent marker.

Cute labels and stickers fall off or get swapped. Sharpie doesn’t. Put it on the bottom so it’s not a target for teasing, and on the inside lid too, in case the outside gets scrubbed. Use a phone number, not just a name, because school staff won’t know whose parent to call.

Then do one thing for the kid’s own eyes: attach something a little ridiculous to the handle—a bright keychain, a weird pin, a neon zip tie. Covering a lunch box in unique junk makes it instantly recognizable across a crowded lunch table, and that matters more than the label. Kids don’t lose things because they don’t know their name; they lose things because every other black bag looks the same.

And finally, take two minutes to teach them where the lost and found is. That’s the part everyone skips. Then you’re done. No $15 engraved name tags required.