Paileontology: The history of the lunch pail!
Awesome Eeb’s having a nosh on the go!
As long as humans have been on the move so has been the food we eat. Originally we would carry food and water about inside the well-oiled bladders and hides of different animals. We eventually evolved and started to carry our food wrapped in pieces of cloth in woven baskets or wooden boxes.
During the 1800’s working class men who had to leave their homes to work and not return until dinner time would convert their metal biscuit and tobacco tins into sturdy containers that would keep their lunches safe in factories, mines and building sites. These same containers were used for kids too when heading off to school. The mid 1800’s saw the first patents being registered for lunch boxes.
At the turn of the 20th century the increased industrialization of our society saw more and more people working outside the home in a variety of environments often making it impractical to go home for lunch. The lunch pail became a symbol of one’s economic status as it showed that you could not afford to purchase a hot lunch time meal. These societal demands and views lead to the invention of a sealed glass tube flask in 1904. This flask allowed everyone the opportunity to enjoy a hot lunch or beverage while at work as the Thermos quickly became a household word.
These turn of the century innovations saw the lunch pail transform into a sturdy virtually indestructible metal box that housed a thermos, had a convenient carrying handle and would last a lifetime. The postwar marketplace was a desperate period which had fashioned a demand for all styles of consumer goods. As such many companies began generating products with a planned obsolescence which ultimately crafted our present day economy in which consumers replace perfectly good products for the sake of passing style. This changed the lunch box into what became a 40 year trend.
The lunch box as most of us know it appeared on the market, shaped like a miniature television set and decorated with our favourite TV stars and shows which often had a lifespan of a couple of years if you were lucky or poor. During this period, the working man’s lunch box was redesigned into the miner’s lunch box when a Sudbury mine worker named Leo May sat on his lunch box and it crushed beneath him. May designed and made the shiny, barn-shaped metal lunch box that was reinforced with heavy rivets.
For decades that followed the lunch box scene remained unchanged until in the mid-1980’s when metal lunch boxes were deemed dangerous and could potentially be used as weapons by students. Ironically the last character featured on these lunch boxes was Rambo. All metal boxes produced today that remotely resemble the old-school lunch boxes, are no longer called lunch boxes.
Things have only become more complicated since as I discovered while shopping for my daughter’s upcoming first day of school. She will not have a lunch box she will have a food transportation system. These “systems,” are simply a set of small containers that fit together and pack easily into an insulated bag. As well she may even carry the latest lunch transportation wave of compartmentalized containers in what is known as Laptop Lunches, which are modeled after the Japanese Bento Lunch Box. .There also is the Indian inspired tiffin lunch systems which are a stackable version of the old lunch pail.
If you too are shopping for a new lunch transportation system for your child I have some suggestions. Look for products made from insulated stainless steel or recycled BPA-free, lead-free, phthalate-free, PVC-free plastic and avoid products that are not dishwasher safe as it says a lot about the quality of the product’s durability and it’s potential health and safety concerns.
The soft-sided insulated cooler bags are an affordable alternative to paper bag lunches as they are durable and easy to clean. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes with segregated pockets that protect fruits and keep cold and hot items away from each other.
I recommend getting twice as much of everything for your child’s lunch transportation system as it will be appreciated on those busy mornings when you discover that everyone has slept in and that that you didn’t get to clean up everything from the day before.
When it comes to packing a healthy lunch that you know your kids will actually eat I suggest using leftovers from dinners that your kids enjoy. If you set some lasagna, soups and stews aside now in small portions in the freezer you will be more than set to start the school year with a little less stress.
Don’t let your kids be guinea pigs
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