Figure 1.--This photograph was taken about 1940 at lunch time in a in Breathitt County, Kentucky primary school. We believed it was a small rural school or a rural boy living close to a small town school. In his lunch pail the boy has mashed potatoes, corn bread, and mush. Source: Library of Congress LC-USF33- 031059-M1.

An issue for school children was lunch. Primary schools often provided a milk break. I recall graham crackers passed out along with the milk-- a welcomed break from the studies. A ritual task each month was collecting milk money. I don't recall anyone doing without, but there must have been some children who did not pay. Lunch was another matter. Few schools until after World War II had cafeterias. In city schools, children often went home for lunch. Some children brought bag lunches to school. Rural children who faced long walks did not have the option of going home for lunch. We note children taking lunch pails to school in the late-19th century. This continued well into the 20th century. A good example is a West Virginia school. We are not sure why pails were used, but they were the same design as factory workers used for their lunches. They were the same as factory workers took to work. In the 20th century we begin to see lunch boxes. The pails persisted a little longer in rural areas. The contents of the lunch pails and boxes is another interesting question. The lunch boxes by the 1950s might have a thermous. A sandwhich, piece of fruit, and perhaos chips or a cake/cookie were common contents. Low income children might not be so lucky. We note one rural boy in the 1940s who had mashed potatos, corn bread, and mush -- fried corn meal pudding (figure 1). Until after World War II, few schools had cafeterias. Children brought a lunch or came home for lunch. We are not sure when lunch boxes first appeared, but begin to see them in the 1930s. There were plain lunch boxes and soon we see boxes decorated with popular figure from Shirely Temple to Hopalong Cassidy). Hoppy was my particular favorite. A reader writes, "Those brothers on the previous page would not have passed the Philly dress code of the 1950s and 60s. We had to wear our shirts tucked in and jeans were not allowed. I remember having a lunch box but I cannot remember what character I had on it. Also remember the army style backpacks you also mention." High school students looked downnon on such childish displays and were more likeky to bring a bag lunch. This gradually declined as more schools added cafeterias and free lunch programs made possible as school sizes and budges gradually increased.

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Created: 3:12 AM 1/19/2020
Last updated: 10:24 AM 1/19/2020