I was often sent to school with a peanut butter and sharp cheddar cheese sandwich.

Being the only Asian in a Mexican/white neighborhood, my parents would always pack me some meat dish with rice. And I would always be SO embarrassed to bring rice for lunch. Now I really appreciate how much healthier my lunch was compared to the other kids with their bologne sandwiches and luncheables. I often pack something with rice for my office lunch now.

A sandwich of white bread, lunch meat, margarine, and potato chips. Fruit snacks, Capri-Sun, and a banana or apple.

I was given left overs, for some reason I always hated sandwiches. I'd get carrot sticks or an apple, milk in a glass bottle and always some homemade treat. My Mom's baking was legendary so I would sometimes trade it for gummy candies which were not allowed in my house.

love the little container in the pic!
until grade 9 i would go home for lunch every day so that was usually a tuna sandwich on white, a fruit, carrots & celery sticks, some kind of campbell's soup and 2 cookies. i would bring the same thing [minus the soup] for lunch in high school even though all my friends ate in the cafeteria. they made fun of me, but i hated the caf food!

I always had a turkey and cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread with a yogurt and carrot sticks. Sounds like a great lunch today, but back then it was so embarrassing to have that brown bag when all my friends were buying lunches--food I wouldn't even touch today.

School lunch all the way. O gross.

PB and Fluff on white (I hated and still do hate PBJ and lunch meat sandwiches), an apple or plum or something, a granola bar, and I'd buy milk.

Pimento cheese sandwich. Every day from kindergarten to 8th grade.

In elementary school, I ate a lot of bagels with cream cheese, usually paired with fruit of some sort and a fruit snack-type item like gushers or fruit by the foot. I also went through a "Goober" phase. That peanut butter and jelly in one jar thing. I don't know why I liked it.

I was never embarrassed by my lunch, and I often got peanut butter on homemade whole wheat bread, some raw veggies (carrots, peppers, celery), a piece of fruit, and yes, a homemade cookie. I guess for some people that's an embarrassing lunch! Leftovers or a thermos of soup appeared as well. My daughter often brings leftovers or onigiri, but her school is majority Asian so I don't think rice turns up any noses. One thing I do know: kids and adults always COMMENT on her lunch. For some kids, that is probably mortifying. My daughter apparently inherited my imperviousness to lunch embarrassment.

I probably only brought my lunch five times K-12. Our school lunch was fantastic. I regret not getting the recipes before the lunch ladies passed away.

@TeaGranny I hated sandwiches too! I'd bring leftovers usually.

Salami sandwich with cream cheese, nutty bar & an orange. In a purple cooler with ice packs. The orange stunk, other kids thought my sandwich was disgusting, and my cooler was NOT COOL! I looked like a construction worker. Looking back, I love it. The only way my single construction worker dad knew how to raise three kids on his own.

Lunches depended on what was on sale at the time in the store. If luncheon meat (ham, turkey etc) and bread was on sale then I'd get a sandwich and a juice pack (if I was lucky)/water. Other times I would just get what was left over from dinner (which was more often than not). Leftovers was mostly rice with some meat or veggies and on rare occasion leftover pasta.

I still pretty much make the same lunches for work but I actually just bring less of rice and veggies and throw more fruits.

My mother has been getting heat for years about her fried egg sandwiches for school lunch. Imagine a fried egg sandwich, cold, squished paper thin. Nasty. Also, cheese and crackers was fairly common along with some soup.

Ham sandwich made with awkwardly sliced, but homemade french bread, with a squirt of mustard. Every day unless I complained that I was bored of ham, in which case I got a jam sandwich. Juice boxes, yogurt cups, apples, and oranges also made appearances often.

I'm Italian so I was often sent off w/salami sandwiches on white bread. Of course salami wasn't something that the other kids were eating so I remember being embarassed by my lunch and often threw it away. Silly me.

Ham and cheese (sometimes turkey) on wheat with a mini bag of chips, an apple, and a Little Debbie or similar. I actually didn't eat apples or sandwiches for years afterward because the monotony made me hate them. I actually started eating school lunches just for something different.

PB&J, carrot sticks, piece of fruit, goldfish crackers. how I coveted other kids' Lunchables!
@allieb, I'm right there with you.

Until I graduated high school, I got a deli meat & bread sandwich, a piece of fruit, two cookies and a juice box.

I was 25 before I could eat sandwiches again.

I also had chicken cutlet sandwiches! I don't know anyone else who had these growing up - mine were leftover from the previous night, where they were fried Asian-style (with panko breadcrumbs) and eaten with rice. But the next day, they would be put in a roll or between 2 slices of bread with lettuce, tomato and mayo. They were delicious! I didn't mind one bit having a non-standard lunch. To this day, I haven't had a chicken sandwich that compares.

Turkey and lettuce on whole wheat with a bit of mayo- I HATED mustard when I was little. Always carrots, you couldn't get me to eat fruit. Also, lots of leftovers- my mom used to send me off to school with thermoses full of chicken pot pie or pasta. If we made cookies, I found some of those, or a piece of easter candy. That was awesome. I loved having proper lunch while my friends had the crappy school food.
There was a dark side to all that... I begged for dunkaroos and shark bites- I got fruit leather, in a pathetic attempt to get me to eat it. But what REALLY humiliated me.. my mother refused to buy ziplocks, so my food was packed in repurposed NYTimes bags, the blue ones. Since they were long, she'd slice them up, and use two twist ties. It seems so petty now, but I yearned for a sandwich bag with a zipper.

My parents never packed us lunch. We had the reduced priced school lunch. Believe it or not, there were some food items I still think about and wish I could find them now . . .

School lunch program everyday since my folks were busy workers. When I think back I am absolutely horrified at the unhealthy (though sometimes tasty) stuff we were served at school. Mashed potatoes with a huge pool of melted butter in the middle, burritos with neon nacho cheese, and worst of all the vegetable option was always a salty mushy something from a can. Never fresh veggies or fruit. How are kids supposed to like that??? I don't have kids yet but I'm so glad to hear about all the reforms coming to the school lunch programs!

I started making my own lunches and breakfasts when I was in grade 2, out of sheer desperation. My mother was a horrible cook, and a horrible sandwich maker. She didn't really understand the concept because from the little corner of Europe we had just come from, kids ate proper hot meals at school -- a clear soup and a main course with sides. Sandwiches were open-faced. And really, she just didn't get things American, like Kool-Aid, white bread, boloney and fitting in. One day, she sent me to school with a roughly cut rye bread sandwich with raw onion and a thermos of curdled buttermilk. Ashamed, I threw it out, and the teachers fed me a donut and milk. After that experience, I learned to make my own lunch.

I'm so old, that back when I was young, there were no juice boxes or yogurts.

I used to dream about twinkies, yoyos, and little debbies. Never got them though.

When we moved to Quebec (when I was in grade 3), I would occasionally make myself a baguette with paté and cornichones, and a demi-lune for dessert. Aaah, life was good.

(as for my own kids, until now, they have gotten proper 3 course hot lunches in school -- the sort of food served in French schools. We should all have meals like that!!!)

My parents never packed me a lunch, it was a "if you can't pack your own lunch, that's your fault" situation.
I made a lot of tuna sandwiches or I would just eat crackers

The old reliable - peanut butter and jelly.

lunch was always pretty good. I was never embarassed about it.
On cold days I would get a thermos of lipton's chicken noodle soup.
Sandwiches ranged from my mom's famous Roast Beef sandwich which always included lots of butter, mustard, and about an inch of iceburg lettuce.
I remember taking a container of plain canned chickpeas and just snacking on them. So tasty, i love it to this day.
Another standby was Rye bread with a thick layer of Liverwurst.

I would eat all these things today, but I usually pack leftovers for my office lunch.

We didn't have the option to buy lunches until high school, and even then, I got pretty much the same thing every day: peanut butter an jelly sandwich, some fruit, a granola bar or Twix bar, if I was lucky (remember when they used to market those as granola bars??), and occasionally a small bag of chips. Of course, as a vegetarian, there rarely was any trading. On rare occasion, I'd get ramen in a thermos, but there were no microwaves at school. Needless to say, after 12 years of pb&j, I almost never eat it now!

My parents always followed the same formula: sandwich, fruit, veggies, crackers or chips, cookies. I hated the sandwiches (usually one lonely piece of lunch meat between mayo, mustard, and bread), but I find myself following the same pattern now: a main dish (usually a grain salad instead of a sandwich), fruit (usually apple, grapes, or orange), veggies (carrots, cauliflower, snap peas), crackers (or pretzels or nuts), and dessert (cookie or a mini cupcake or a piece of chocolate).

The "cool" snacks have totally changed since I was a kid, too. My daughter used to beg me for "go-gurt," that garbage-sweet yogurt in a tube. No way are you getting that, m'dear. When I'm desperate for time, I've been known to send her the Sabra hummus mini-packs for snack-time. Pricey, especially as I've been informed I must send two, because everyone wants to share. Somedays you're cool, somedays you're not.

Always school lunches.
I grew up in an Asian household, so American food was actually a novelty to me. I actually liked the varieties in school cafeteria, because I don't get to get them at home.
I think I'm fairly healthy right now, no bad side-effect.

K - 8 I walked home or to grands for lunch. In high school I used my earnings to buy lunch, if that's what you called it.

The majority of the time I got a deli meat and american cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread. Always perfect layers of meat and cheese. Which I really should have been happy with, but the bread somehow always got soggy and/or flattened, and the cheese was always gooey.

Alongside was always one healthy side (carrots, applesauce, yogurt, etc), and one sweet. (little debbie, chips, cookies, etc.) Sodas were only allowed on Fridays.

Now I'm rather picky when making sandwiches...They always have messy layers, toasted bread, usually more lettuce than meat, and never american cheese.

I think my favorite packed lunch growing up was leftover chicken and tater tot casserole. I still make that recipe every now and then.

favorite and most memorable: chocolate pudding in a thermos container with a surprise dollop of marshmallow cream hidden below the surface. Applesauce was another favorite. The rest of the meals? Can't remember.

My parents sent me to elementary school with a Lunchable every day. It turned me into a vegetarian by the time I got to 4th grade. Nasty stuff in those packages.

It would either be bologna with yellow mustard, PB & J or fluff, or tuna salad and always on white bread (this was the 60s) wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag with an apple and a nickle for a carton of milk.

My mom would send me to school with a pbj sandwich made with homemade bread, and homemade cookies and fruit. I remember looking with envy at my classmates white bread bologna sandwiches and store-bought treats. I now realize my lunch was the best one... I love you Mumsy!

I would get peanut butter and jelly on whole grain bread (possibly the grainiest bread one could find) and a few times I remember the jelly as bright green and minty which was really quite fascinating.

Cooking for myself now I definitely appreciate the effort my mom put into my lunches, even though I always had to explain them. My friends were just curious about my food, no one had seen things like dried papaya (no sugar added) and affectionately renamed it "shoe leather," tabouleh (tabouli), or lahmajun which they called "Armenian pizza" because it was round and you could fold it like pizza. The days I had a tuna sandwich, one of my favorites, they put up with me and the smell.

You people ate huge lunches! In grade school I walked home for a PBJ on wonderbread and canned soup lunch. No cookies during the work day! in High school, an egg salad sandwich and ice cream sandwich every day for 3 years.

My Mom packed awesome lunches in my Snoopy lunchbox (w/matching Snoopy thermos, sometimes filled with tomato soup!) and ALWAYS seven pennies scotch taped to the inside so I could buy milk : )

I mostly ate leftovers of pasta or other dinners. I remember getting strange looks from kids who didn't understand what that green stuff (pesto) was that I was eating.

My dad would also draw pictures on all (me and my three sisters) of our lunch bags, different things everyday.

When we brought lunch Mom always packed a tuna sandwich on a soft little round roll with lettuce. We also got long pretzel rods wrapped in tin foil and a juicy juice. Very smelly and uncool- plus the pretzels were always in pieces by the time we got to lunch.

Peanut butter and jelly, ad nauseam. All these years later and I still don't eat peanut butter.

Cream cheese & Grape Jelly on white bread.
Thermos of tomato soup.

yogurt/cottage cheese and carrot sticks

I moved a lot as a kid and changed schools 6 times before eighth grade, and I carried my lunch from home that whole time and was never once teased or embarrassed for it. It was more the other way around - people who bought school lunch clearly had working mothers and/or were on the free lunch program, whereas being one of the rare people with packed lunches meant I was probably from a higher socioeconomic class, with a mom who could, like, pick me up after school. It was definitely a luxury.

My mom packed me whatever she felt like putting together that day, so it could be anything from PBJ to lasagna to shrimp diablo. The only time it was commented on was by people who were curious to try something. For a while in high school, people would stop me in the morning to ask me hopefully whether I had salt and vinegar chips with me, which were seen as devastatingly arty and exotic.

My Chinese Grandma made my brother and I turkey sandwiches on white bread everyday. Then in high school I decided I was tired of them, so she would wake up early to heat up leftovers (rice, meat, veggies). She would put it in tupperware, wrapped it in kitchen towels, and wait at the bottom of the stairs with it on her lap to keep it as warm. Makes me choke up just thinking about it.

In the Philippines, our packed lunches usually consisted of what we had for dinner the night before (caldereta, adobo, chopsuey, pinakbet,etc) and steamed rice. Sometimes we also have that day's breakfast for lunch - usually some sort of fried meat product/protein (spam, marinated beef, bacon, dried fish), an egg and garlic rice.

My mom liked cooking different things, and I felt really special when she packs lasanga or camaron rebosado. I can trade practically anything with these.

Tuna salad sandwiches, every day. I loved them then and still do now. I'm sure there must have been desserts too but I just don't remember any of them.

My mom would make sandwiches by the dozen (there were 4 of us kids) and put them in the freezer. In the morning she would line up our brown paper lunch bags, plop in a sandwich an apple and some cookies with a nickel wrapped up in the napkin for milk (what can I say, it was the 60's) By lunch time the sandwich was defrosted, and good to go. Soggy, but edible. But complain about it? Only if you wanted to get into trouble.

We always bought lunch, yuck! Tacos, pizza, instant mashed potatoes! Of course I never liked when my mom sent me with pbj and carrot sticks while the other kids had fruit roll ups and snack cakes!

This was the seventies and my mother was into the health food thing, so it was always natural peanut butter and honey on dense, heavy whole wheat bread (my sister and I called it "dirt bread"). Came with a piece of fruit and that's it. Sometimes we'd get homemade trail mix that she put in little fabric bags that she sewed for us.

We dreamed of Skippy peanut butter, bologna, and Wonder bread. (Nowadays, I'd only eat that stuff if I were starving.)

My (Austrian) dad always made me sandwiches with his favourite 'Bauern' rye bread, liverwurst or calabrese salami, cucumbers and lettuce. My mom would always give me leftovers or tuna salad sandwiches on rye or whole wheat and some sort of fruit or yogurt or cheese + 1 snack pack/fruit roll up for recess. Along side some sort of fruit juice or I'd bring my refillable water bottle (water is still my favourite drink).

I still love, love (usually open faced) sandwiches. I eat them for dinner with a salad whenever my boyfriend works nights.

I was always embarrassed by my recycled wax paper sandwich wrap - I wanted the clear plastic wrap like the other kids!

I don't remember much about my lunchbox, but I'm pretty sure it was usually a ham and cheese or a peanut butter and jam combo sandwich, a frozen 'poppa' (juicebox) that defrosted by lunchtime, a kid's vanilla or berry yoghurt (also frozen), muesli bar and some type of fruit. I seem to remember a fruit roll-up phase, too.

salami and mustard sandwiches... that was all I ever wanted :)

Sandwiches (on homemade whole wheat bread), apples, homemade cookies, homemade fruit leather. I too was always jealous of other kids and their junk food.

My mom used to cut my sandwiches in half to make 2 rectangles. Then she cut one of those rectangles into 2 squares. Then one of those squares became 2 triangles. So I had 1 rectangle, 1 square, and 2 triangles. It's a great way to help a little one learn shapes!

from like 3rd to 6th grade, I packed my own lunch, usually chips and a fruit, cookies, other packaged food from Costco that my parents would buy. TERRIBLE! After that I bought lunches, but they were worse, a bagel and cream cheese and soda, or three cookies, or a poptart and soda. In high school I could get a bowl of rice or pizza, and often did. Seriously, how did the schools let me eat just 3 cookies for lunch?

My parents are Filipino immigrants and not so big on sandwiches, so lunch was always dinner leftovers for my brother and me. Steamed rice with adobo, sinigang, caldereta, etc was the norm along with a Capri Sun and fruit for dessert. On the rare occasion that we had sandwiches (like field trip days), my mom would make either egg salad sandwiches or turkey sandwiches with all the fixings sent with us in insulated lunch boxes. I remember being jealous of the kids who brought Lunchables and Twinkies, but now I appreciate that my parents sent us to school with a home cooked meal as opposed to the processed junk food that many of my classmates ate.

Ham sandwich, maybe crisps, fruit, chocolate biscuit. Can't remember about drinks, I think we had water at school. I was very picky so I had the same thing for about 5 years running I think. Made it easy for my Dad to make though :-)

I was the kid who came to school with tuna fish and crackers or chicken noodle soup in a thermos.

I was never normal :P

I can't believe there aren't any poor folks responding. I had school lunch in grade school ... and I loved them. Then I had government mystery meat or government cheese sandwiches with Miracle Whip. And we didn't have lunch bags or lunch boxes. We had to re-use clear bread sacks. I have very nice lunch bags now and love taking the stuff I never got when I was growing up. Bologna sandwich and pudding cups. Tuna sandwiches with potato chips snack packs.

Turkey sandwich on white bread with butter, Ramen or Kraft mac and cheese in a thermos - made in the morning so it was still warm by lunchtime, Juicy Juice, and cookies or fruit snacks. Also, a folded napkin. All packed in a reusable lunch bag. Usually we weren't allowed to have Kool-Aid or Hi-C but sometimes we'd get Mondos or Kool-Aid Kool Bursts as a treat. Those were my favorite days!

Pb&J, bag of chips or crackers, juicebox and an apple. Kind of boring.. sometimes my mum would include homemade chocolate chip cookies. In 1st grade I'd have a pickle in my lunch and my friends would look at me like an alien so I told my mum to stop putting them in there.