Lunchbox designed to separate food, germs

Rita Floyd-Vester designed FlatBox-LunchBox

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. – A fifth grade teacher believes she has built a lunchbox that keeps students' food away from lunch table germs.

Rita Floyd-Vester teaches at Lighthouse Christian School in Pompano Beach. Outside the classroom, she wants to solve a germ multiplication problem.

"Studies show, it was conducted by the University of Arizona, that the dirtiest place in a school building is the cafeteria table," she said.

Her solution is the FlatBox-LunchBox, a lunchbox-placemat combination which keeps students' food and table germs apart. 

"I think it's really cool because it's really light and it's durable," said Sarah Mellinger. 

Floyd-Vester had some of her students like Mellinger try it while trying to get big retailers interested. 

"None of the companies, none of them -- not even an email back. Nothing. I received nothing back," said Floyd-Vester.

Not deterred, she took her FlatBox-LunchBox to the International Home and Housewares Show, where it won an Innovation Award. 

"Now 6 months later, these are the companies that are coming to us and wanting to license it and ready to order it," she said.

The FlatBox-LunchBox is made out of neoprene, making it lightweight and easy to keep clean. 

"My mom is like, when it comes out, we're going to buy 10 of those," said student Taylor Dickman. 

"This is the way to keep your kids healthy. Parents love it, kids love it," said Floyd-Vester. "I think it's a hit."

Floyd-Vester said she is making final design tweaks to the FlatBox-LunchBox before the first production of 500,000 units starts. She said to expect them to be ready toward the end of summer.

Click here to preorder the FlatBox-LunchBox.