That must have been the standard, because it’s pretty much the way my dad described the lunch he carried to school. My grandfather had too many mouths to feed on a coal miner’s wage, but he managed to get most of them to adulthood.
My mother took a cold dry hard biscuit for lunch. There were ten or 12 kids. She had step siblings. She was embarrassed to take that biscuit to school so she left it by the side of the road, ate it on her way home, long walk. I don’t know if bugs got in it. She didn’t have a lunch pail or box. Btw I grew up very poor and never had one of those cute lunch boxes, either.
I guess I turned out ok. We didn’t have heat or AC, NE Oklahoma has super hot summers, 100s. And super cold winters, freezing. We never asked for a gov hand out. We were poor and SKINNY. Don’t give food stamps to fatties.