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What was in your school packed lunch when you were growing up?

191 replies

Enjoyingthesedays · 06/09/2023 19:14

How did it compare to your child's packed lunch now?

OP posts:
SushiSuave · 06/09/2023 21:12

Ham sandwich on frozen white bread (made the night before so defrosted by lunch), bag of walkers, penguin and an apple or orange.

My DSs lunch is similar although fresh bread and usually cheese! I also buy him more interesting crisps - Doritos Chilli Heatwave this week.

SpamFrittersYouSay · 06/09/2023 21:13

Most of us had school dinners in the early 70s.
Packed lunches were rare but a significant number of us went home for lunch. ( to watch Pipkins if I recall.)

If at school, you are what you were given.

User16328715 · 06/09/2023 21:14

F1ymetothetoon · 06/09/2023 20:50

Cheese & Piccalilly sandwich or a trip to the local chippy - this was in the 70,s/early 80's when kids were allowed to leave school premises at lunchtime (local newsagent would even sell you a single fag for a few pennies) 😂

The sweet shop near our secondary school used to sell single cigarettes in the early 70s, we used to smoke on the top deck of the school bus

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NoNoNoYoureWrong · 06/09/2023 21:17

1980s. Wholemeal bread. A live yoghurt. A carrot.

I looked with envy at my classmates’ floppy white bread, crisps and penguin/trio/small chocolate bar of choice.

DC2 has a packed lunch and is at secondary school so I’ve given up on a balanced meal and he has what he’ll eat. Bread sticks or crackers. Hummus. Banana. Crisps sometimes. Frubes sometimes. Actimal. A penguin. He’s a strange child who’d live off plain crackers, apple and milk if he could.

Moonlight222 · 06/09/2023 21:22

Peanut butter sandwich, penguin, chipsticks and a juice.

kids

wraps with various fillings, ham, cheese, chicken, with salad. Various fruit, smoothie, yoghurt

DiscoBeat · 06/09/2023 21:34

Cheese or ham sandwich, a yogurt, a carton of Um Bongo (Um Bongo, Um Bongo, they drink it in the Congo - struck me even then as racist!) and a pot of KP Choc Dips.

Jellycatspyjamas · 06/09/2023 21:35

I usually had school dinners, so whatever was on offer - usually soup, a main course and cake and custard. On the odd occasion I had a packed lunch it would be a chopped pork or cheese sandwich, a chocolate biscuit and a packet of crisps.

My kids take a flask with hot pasta and sauce usually tomato based with some other veg, grapes or an apple, a chocolate biscuit and cheese cubes or a yoghurt.

FuckoffeeBeforeCoffee · 06/09/2023 21:35

Fuck. I forgot to make my son's lunchbox!

Upandonward · 06/09/2023 21:40

Depending on which parent made it I got:

Always whole meal bread with -
Vegemite & lettuce
Vegemite & cheese
Tinned salmon & vinegar (hated because they stank)
Yoghurt
Flask of homemade soup in winter

I have no recollection of ever having fruit, crisps or any sweet items at primary school.

ASGIRC · 06/09/2023 21:40

80s and 90s - Generally whatever we had had for dinner the day before. In a thermal container, so it was still hot by lunch time. And some fruit.
It was always a knife and fork meal, never a sandwich

TotalOverhaul · 06/09/2023 21:41

Shippam's paste or sandwich spread sandwich, flask of soup, a banana or an apple, either a wagon wheel or chipmunk crisps. Way healthier these days!

Titsywoo · 06/09/2023 21:43

Soup in a thermos with a roll. Very embarrassing when the rest of the kids had sandwiches and crisps. My mum worried about my weight since I was a small child!

Wednesdaysotherchild · 06/09/2023 21:43

Crunchy peanut butter sandwiches on wholewheat bread with a packet of crisps! Yum.

Holidayhouse1010 · 06/09/2023 21:44

Oooo, my days of packed lunches spanned around three weeks in 1990. I was a very fussy child according to my mother. I liked cucumber, carrot bits and tiny bits of cheese. The school recommended packed lunch as I refused point blank to eat any of the school lunch. Those manky green trays were enough to set me off.

So my mother did her best... a white, plasticky bread, few globs of butter where she'd been too annoyed to spread it, one slice of wet, slimy plastic ham, all squashed together and cut any old way. I might have got a penguin, and crisps. No fruit, I might have eaten that. This all went in the box with a flask of blackcurrant squash that leaked so I got squash and butter flavoured sandwiches.

Funnily enough, sandwiches still give me the creeps today. I'd have loved a brown sandwich, with something dryish in it, water, plain yoghurt and an apple.

My dc get fruit, a carb, some protein, yoghurt, a handful of crisps and a tiny chocolate. They have school lunch and seem to enjoy it so I don't have to do it often.

Veryangryboy · 06/09/2023 21:46

Sandwich - wholemeal bread with cheese or peanut butter. An apple, tangerine or banana. Maybe some raisins. Never chocolate or crisps, though I remember other kids having them. This was late 80s/90s

My child's school doesn't allow packed lunch so I can't compare.

ChristmasKraken · 06/09/2023 21:47

My mum baked a lot, so it was usually home made bread (which I despised at the time - would kill for it now!) sandwiches with either ham, corned beef or left over meat from a roast; fruit; penguin/club/trio and I'm pretty sure that was it. Sometimes a scone or a homemade flapjack instead of the biscuit.

I look back now and realise the times when we'd obviously run out or Mum hadn't realised we'd not got things in - I suspect the times we had honey sandwiches, or raisins she'd decanted from the big bag into a little tub instead of a piece of fruit. I suspect the scones were a panic bake in the evening when she realised she was short of lunch ingredients....
All of which felt like a treat to us at the time!!

CantFindTheBeat · 06/09/2023 21:48

ValenciaOrange · 06/09/2023 19:18

The option didn't exist. School lunches or you went home for lunch.
Born in the late 60's so at school early 70's.

What were the school lunch options, @ValenciaOrange ?

And I wonder if any kids still go home to lunch today?

CantFindTheBeat · 06/09/2023 21:53

Robinbuildsbears · 06/09/2023 19:26

Smart price chocolate spread on smart price brown bread, bag of smart price crisps, smart price biscuit bar and a box of raisins. Was underfed at home, so would frequently sneak inside at morning break and steal babybels, cheesestrings or frubes from other kids lunches.

That sounds tough, @Robinbuildsbears

Primproperpenny · 06/09/2023 21:56

Marmite sandwich on brown bread, but with real butter. Mint club biscuit. Apple. Mini cheddars. DM once did cheese and crackers for me rather than a sandwich and everyone took the piss - a teacher had to step in and defend my lunch (probably age 6-7). Thanks Mrs Hall!

Mine now tend to have a cheese sandwich, fruit, veg sticks, crisps/crackers/rice cakes and a treat eg chocolate biscuit, so not too dissimilar. Flasks of pasta/pesto/veg in the winter sometimes.

Primproperpenny · 06/09/2023 21:59

Also - can’t believe all the peanut butter that went down back in the day! None of that these days (for good reason!). Wonder when the rules started changing?

Mrsjayy · 06/09/2023 22:09

Primproperpenny · 06/09/2023 21:59

Also - can’t believe all the peanut butter that went down back in the day! None of that these days (for good reason!). Wonder when the rules started changing?

My Dd started school in mid 90s and they weren't allowed peanut butter then.

ASoapImpressionOfHisWifeWhichHeAte · 06/09/2023 22:12

Not the point at all but this thread is making me really fancy a crab paste sandwich.

WDTABNONONO · 06/09/2023 22:49

Sandwich usually jam or ham

pavket of crisps space invaders, walkers or chipsticks

biscuit bar like a coconut or penguin

banana / apple / pear

petit filous

GreenEyedGiant · 06/09/2023 22:59

Luncheon meat sandwich or ham, plastic cheese and tomato sandwich which went soggy and I absolutely loved! Along with a bottle of vitazade cola, a choc bisuit from a multipack like penguin/club etc and a packet of crisps. I don't remember having fruit at all.

blackheartsgirl · 06/09/2023 23:08

Me in the 80s

cheese and marmite sandwich on white bread
packet of crisp
2 penguins/trio
juice in a flask

my kids
ham sandwich on white bread
crisps
fruit
cheese string
water

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