Lunch Lady
Louise Bannister
Episode 3
Lunch Lady | Lou Bannister on creating Magazines with a cult-like following including Frankie, Lunch Lady, Smith Journal and SPACES
Louise Bannister is the Co-Founder and Editor of Lunch Lady, a magazine where parenting is not taken too seriously but a balanced approach to family life is.
Colourful, thoughtful and full-of-cheek, it reminds parents to keep things in perspective and have fun. It’s a beautifully printed kitchen keepsake full of recipes, inspiring family stories, photography, art + kids cooking ideas and funny relatable opinion pieces about the ups and downs of raising children.
Lou co-created the Lunch Lady with her partner in crime and Creative Director Lara Burke. Magazine Makers by trade, this was not their first rodeo… Their first printed success was Frankie magazine, a title they co-founded and produced from 2004 – 2014.
Other successful titles they created include Smith Journal and SPACES. In 2014 the duo started an independent publishing company, We Print Nice Things. Shortly after stumbling across the Lunch Lady blog, originally created by photographer and cook (+ mum of 2) Kate Berry, the trio teamed up to create Lunch Lady magazine – a quarterly publication about food + family. In June, 2017 Kate left Lunch Lady and Lara and Louise stepped in to become Lunch Lady’s full-time editors.
Images courtesy of monster children and Amelia Fullarton.
“That was always Lunch Lady’s intention, for it to be a positive news force, but that doesn’t mean avoiding the scary topics, like death, grief, politics…”
— Lou Bannister, Lunch Lady

Lunch Lady | Lou Bannister
Podcast
Mentioned in conversation…
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Why the world needs a positive place to enjoy parenting, and how Lunch Lady is filling that niche.
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What it takes to launch magazines with a cult-like following including Frankie, Lunch Lady, Smith Journal, Spaces.
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How taking leaps of faith can almost lose you your home in the process.
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Simplicity parenting, resilience, responsibility and everything in between. SO many gold nuggets on parenting.
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The profound effects of the daily practice of meditation, and why Lou is shipping herself off to Silence Camp.