Lunch Box Diaries by amrutabuge

LUNCH BOX D I A R I E S

Lunch hour confessions from around the world

Sara Risvåg Tromsø, NORWAY

My family has never been known as “early birds,” more like nightwalkers. This as a consequence meant that we were never up early and we never had much time in the mornings. Normally I would wake up by my dad saying my name in the door, a bad sign that was because it meant that I had overslept again. As soon as I heard my name I would sit straight up in bed. A horrible kind of waking up that no one deserves. The rest of the morning routines went by in a hurry and this is why my lunch normally was a rather sad affair. I would have my lunch in a plastic bag and most of the time the content was consisting of a dry piece of ready sliced brown bread 4

with a sweaty salami on top. The smell alone was enough for me to lose my interest in food. Sometimes you could even smell it through my backpack. At some point, I realized that bringing the lunch with me to school was pointless. So I would grab the plastic bag my dad gave me as I ran past him to the stairs and throw it in the garbage bin outside our house. It always made me feel bad because my dad had after all gotten out of bed to fix me lunch for school. I did confess this to him many years later only to discover that he had known about this all the time and he kept doing it anyway as he could make sure I woke up that way.

Iossie Ng Lei London, UNITED KINGDOM

My lunch was just a sandwich wrapped in plastic wrap, a bottle of water, and a snack or fruit. I used to sit with a group of friends outside. I would always eat my sandwich first and then the fruit and water. We were a really big group, like 20 of us. We would always sit together, or stand up, and walk around. Sometimes it would be cheese and ham, tuna, tomato lettuce, and cheese, sometimes it would be peanut butter, sometimes just cheese. When I was in primary my

mum would make it, but when I went to secondary I would make it myself. When I was younger it was a plastic lunchbox and again it was a sandwich, juice, and fruit. I had more lunch when I was little. I used to be really jealous of all the kids that would have deep-fried meals or snacks. Some kids got like five chocolate bars and all I got was a fruit. Some of my friends would get fizzy drinks like coca-cola and my mum would never give me that.

Carlotta Albertini My lunchbox as a kid was provided by the school, each of the kids had the possibility to serve lunch to friends. Like to be a waitress. It was a special moment for everyone. My favorite food was bastoncini findus (fish sticks). We lunched all together in a room, the lunchroom and we could refill our plates how many times we wanted. Normally we would get them with green peas, puree, mashed potatoes, salad, or vegetables. And at the end of the meal, we had budino, a kind of yogurt at the end of the meal. Sometimes we stole one budino to eat during the afternoon period. We paid for the bonumentsa, they were five mila lire, about 2.50 euros, so we never brought anything else to eat at school. Everyone had their own towel or apron so that we would not spill on our dress or shirt. During lunchtime, we would talk, play and sing. Sometimes we even had food wars with bread. This was our break. Now I think the teacher was not even there. It was just Flavia, the lady working to serve us lunch. I love her. They gave us green little coupons, bonumentsa, the size of a dollar bill. With these, we were able to get food. 6

Bagnoregio, ITALY 7

Maria de Falco Naples, ITALY

If I ever have had a nice lunchbox it wouldn’t last long because I used to turn every box into a pencils case. However, during the normal school days, my mum used to give me some ready-made snacks that I hated so much that I happily gave them away to my classmates...then they started waiting for me during 8

lunch. Since we were three children, my mum prepared huge amounts of food because she knew we shared everything with friends. What she really loved to prepare was maccheroni omelet, potatoes gattò and, my favorite one, chestnut cake with raisins.

Anna Kiryanova Siberia, RUSSIA

Kiki Kita Kawagoe, JAPAN

I used a lunchbox only when we had field trips. Other than that, the school provided lunch for us in lunch trays. Lunch provided by the school would always include fruits, milk, bread, a main dish, and dessert. Every day, the main dish and dessert would change. One day we might have chicken curry and pudding, and another day we might have grilled fish, jello, etc. We were allowed to go play once we finished our food. The teachers made sure we ate everything on the plate because they were strict on not having leftovers. I was always 10

one of the last ones to go play. On days of field trips, our moms would prepare the lunch boxes for us, and they would usually take time off from work and join us. In Japan, it is custom to make your child’s lunchboxes as cute and appealing as possible, and if you don’t, other moms will judge your lunch box. It was more of a competition between the moms than anything else. My lunch box had things like sausages in the shape of octopuses and fruits cut into star shapes.

Marta Klopf Monza, ITALY

I didn’t have a lunch box when I was a kid because my elementary school offered lunch and we weren’t allowed to bring our own food. My mom used to put a snack in my bag before I left for school. I had two options: chocolate cookies or this sandwich with olives. We shared and traded our snacks, so no one felt envious or left out. I don’t have a funny story about my snacks, but I can tell you that

at lunchtime we did everything in our power in order for us to not get caught by our teachers. We hid the gross food we didn’t want to eat. I mean, we stuffed our bread with that disgusting fish they gave us, we hid it under our lettuce, we rolled it in our napkins and hid the napkins under our plates. I guess it’s not really funny, but it seems so now because of the amount of effort we put into it.

Jessy Lu Jingzhou, CHINA

I never brought my lunchbox to school because I lived pretty close to school - about 5 minutes on the bike, so I usually ate my lunch at

home. Sometimes, I came back to school from the lunch break early to grab food with my classmates.

Illustration by Jessy Lu (left).

Azisa Noor Bandung, INDONESIA

I’ve always liked spicy. Others carried forks and spoons, but I could eat my spicy food with my hands. My mother would give me traditional Indonesian food like tahu (tofu), tempe, and fish. She was always creative with the way she packed my lunch. She would shape the rice in different shapes like a circle or triangle. She would make the food look fancy by making it look like sushi and by having fish and rice together. I never liked water as a kid, so my

mother would give me iced tea instead in a bottle that had a long string so it was easy to carry when I was young. The lunch was packed in a box, which isn’t that common in Indonesia now, but it was pretty common for when I went to school. When I was studying in undergrad this one lady offered to make my friends and my lunch. That lady packed our lunch in the same kind of lunch box from the 80s which got all my old memories back!

Christina Huang Taipei, TAIWAN

Johana Brubeck Monterrey, MEXICO

Jim Yang Shanghai, CHINA

Mert Demirel Istanbul, TURKEY

Whenever lunch started students used to run to the cafeteria for cups. We were favoring these 5 designs on cups that we got milk in. The ‘Teddy bear’ cups were everybody’s

favorite, and nobody ever wanted the ‘Snowman’ cups.’ Nobody (the school) expected these cups to create a hierarchy or sort and a battle for kindergarteners.

My lunch tray consisted of soup, vegetables, never fish, always chicken or beef, and fruit juice. I was really taken aback when I moved to

the U.S. at the age of 14. I especially remember having tater tots and potato chips for lunch. 17

Dream Chen Haikou, CHINA

I didn’t bring a lunchbox to school, because we had a cafeteria in my school. Lunchtime for me then was a happy memory, although I once found a fat vegetable worm in my meal. All of my classmates were disgusted by that, but I just

simply took it out and continued eating. I put the worm under my plate so it was out of my sight. After I finished my meal and took the plate away, I found the worm was flattened by the plate.

Amruta Buge Pune, INDIA

Vedashree Bankar Pune, INDIA

As soon as the bell rang, the recess started! Recess was my favorite time of the day, firstly, because you get to meet the friends who aren’t in your class and secondly the fooood! When I was younger, my mother would send my dad with my tiffin every recess. So, the breads where freshly made, and I got to eat warm food! It was amazing, but most of the times I would forget to take out my tiffin from my bag, so the food would get stale my lunch bag would stink all day. My mother would always have to look for more tiffins to give me! Growing up I was pretty clumsy with my bag and lunchbox. My mom packed curry in my tiffin one time, I dropped it in my bag, and all my notebooks smelled and looked like curry! 20

As I grew older, my school started having a mid-day meal program. Meaning they would serve us food in the school. The food was surprisingly good sometimes, and the rest of the times it wasn’t the best. Just some of my friends paid for the mid-day meal plan, but we would all eat the food anyways. Recess was always about sharing! One time on my birthday, my friends surprised me with a cake during recess. Literally my entire class, and everyone around came to eat the cake. Later that evening the cake turned into a cake fight and everyone started grabbing the cake with their hands! It was wild, but so much fun!

Johannes Fuchs Hopfgarten, GERMANY

My mom always packed me healthy food. Mostly vegetables such as cucumbers, carrots, etc. Once a group of bullies who always went around asking their peers to open

their lunchbox came to me. They came to me… they came to me and said, “Hey show me what’s in your lunchbox!”

“What the fuck?!? Uhhhhh gemüseeeeee. Don’t ask him again, he only has vegetables.” 21

Jenny Wang Dongguan, CHINA

I went to a boarding school in Dongguan, China. Our lunch was provided by the school and we ate in a cafeteria. I loved going to the cafeteria because everybody was there. We all used to stand back in a line and talk about the guys, haha. This was the only chance that

we got to see them. We were not allowed to have a boyfriend or girlfriend in school, but since there was no teacher in the cafeteria people were free to sit together. The cafeteria was a place for us all to sit together and chat freely.

Yinfan Huang Guangzhou, CHINA

My lunchbox experience is a little bit gross. We didn’t need to bring a lunchbox when I was in elementary school. Instead, the school would order lunch boxes for us. The lunch boxes were made of white disposable foam and we did not have a choice of food. I still remember my first lunch in school,

when I opened the box, I was so surprised and disguised by the food—a big pile of meat paste with some tomato sauce. The meat paste looked and smelt like poop to me! It was a big shock for the young me who just ate home-cooked meals. Any food I ate after would be better than that disgusting meal. 23

Jacklyn Kim Seoul, SOUTH KOREA

I was not a social kid during my early school years. Lunchtime for me was an escape. I usually sat alone in the classroom at lunch. The food provided by South Korean schools was not that good. Food for me was just food, something to eat to live, so I didn’t have a

particular favorite. We usually got small amounts of everything, like kimchi, rice, beef radish stew, and a small Yakult drink. Sometimes we would have pasta and that was when most of the kids got excited, except for me.

Illustration by Jacklyn Kim (left).

Mika Fernanda Albornoz Maracaibo, VENEZUELA

When I was little, our school wouldn’t go on till long, so our lunch break would be more like a breakfast break. My mother would pack traditional Venezuelan food for me like Arepa, pastelitos, tequeños. When I was in high

school, I would be given money to buy food in school, but I didn’t buy food from that money, instead I would save it for the weekend. I would then steal some little kid’s food and eat it!

Connie Kang Taipei, TAIWAN

Our school provided us lunch in elementary school. We would all sit at our desks and eat food. We were expected to get our plates and silverware. The food was bought to class in three boxes: one for the veggies, one for the main course, and the other for dessert. The boxes were so big that two students had to carry each one. The same two students would take the boxes back to the town hall. The food served our entire class. It would be 26

served on a little stage in front of the classroom. We lined up to take the food. It didn’t taste good at all. We also got drinks with the food such as soup, bubble tea, or yogurt. The yogurt was my favorite! We had a food schedule planned so we would all know what to expect. Wednesdays were our special food days! We were served mini pizzas, chicken nuggets, or spaghetti. So we all looked forward to them.

Desiree Niu Taipei, TAIWAN

I was seven years old when my mother packed my first-ever lunch box. Every class had a big heating machine, but I didn’t know how to use it or what to do with it. My teacher announced in the class about heating our food, but I was confused. Then later, my friends heated their food and sat down to have lunch. I looked at them and realized that my food was cold, and then figured out what my teacher was talking about. Sadly, I ate my first ever-packed lunch cold. My mother always liked to make healthy food. She doesn’t like white rice, so she gave me brown rice and she put a lot of vegetables in it! The vegetables were just boiled vegetables, so when I would open my tiffin I would just see lots of

green colors, little brown rice, and half an egg. As a kid, I was always surprised to find this! I also sometimes forgot to take out my lunch box from my bag and give it to my mother to clean. My mother always got mad, but she had some spare lunchboxes for me! Later, the school started serving food in school. They catered with a restaurant, but the food always tasted the same. So we would sneak out, or tell other parents to get food from other places. Weirdly, some people always showed off their lunch boxes. They would have fancy lunchboxes. I remember this one kid always had an inferiority complex because his tiffin was simple, as he was poor.

Ornella Padalino Manfredonia, ITALY

I did not have a lunchbox when I was a child. The only memory I have is the one of this good smelling sandwich my mum gave to me everyday: she used to provide me a daily bread dressed with olive oil, tomatoes, and oregano. When it 28

was lunchtime at school I opened the package that covered the sandwich and the scent spread all over the class attracting my companions and my teacher too. I remember everyone was envious of my so good smelling sandwich.

Wenyi Zhen Hangzhou, CHINA

All students would eat their lunch in the classroom together. After we finished the meal, all of us would take out a fruit to eat, like an apple

or pear. But I remember one girl kept bringing a raw carrot and that’s a weird “fruit” for us. I hate eating raw carrots!

Magdalena Corves Jalisco, MEXICO

My mami would prepare lunch for me and my brother. I was often disappointed with what my mami packed for lunch. It was often healthy foods, like a ham sandwich and some carrots, or broccoli. I was envious of my friend who got

Nutella sandwiches and delicious ham prepared with chili sauce, lime, Maggi, and Knor Suiza. She had it all. One time we started a food fight with all the kids in recess at the moment, and I believe it started with one of my mami’s healthy snacks. 29

Stephen Lurvey Minneapolis, MN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

I remember fights at my school would happen most frequently at lunch and the school got real riled up. I witnessed this wild one with some dudes sitting right next to me. This is the most vivid memory of lunch at my high school. So, hahaha, so this dude is sitting next to me, and my friend is sitting across from me; they were arguing over some stupid stuff, I don’t even remember, and then outta nowhere... Hold up, let me get this straight… Okay, so outta nowhere, my friend throws his milk, like the whole milk carton, at him. It hit him pretty good,

so the other dude chucks his Watchmen book at him and it slaps him right in the face. You just could see the rage building up in him, but he stayed calm and collected; he just sat there for a second. Then he pushed back from the table, jumped, leaped up over the table, hahahahhaha, and fly kicked the dude right in the chest! Like it just happened. It was majestic. There were cops in the lunchroom, because they know fights break out there, so that fight broke up real quick, but that was the most surreal thing ever. It was intense. The dude got kicked in the chest! And I was just sitting right next to him.

Haas Al Mashani Abu Dhabi, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

I used to carry my own lunch to primary school. My housemaid gave me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Tomato Ketchup Lays, and Lacnor’s fruit juice, but I never ate the PB&J

sandwich, so my housemaid started giving me just chips and juice. For about six years of my primary education, I just ate lays and drank juice for lunch, so I was a little chubby. 31

Antonio Morales Minneapolis, MN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

My mum used a paper bag and put all my food in my pokemon lunchbox. Typically I got sandwiches which were wrapped in napkins. And because of the napkins they always got soggy. Other things I would get for lunch would be burritos. We all had a giant cafeteria and we had sections of tables where different clicks would hang out. People were in different groups, because I was the only Mexican I was usually by myself. We had this one kid, he had a learning disability. People would 32

always make fun of him. I remember I gave him my lunch once in 2nd grade. After that we hanged out sometimes. Twinkles are these vanilla cupcakes with cream. In Hispanic cultures we have the same ones only with chocolate. They have strawberry sprinkles on top and a strawberry jelly inside. I would have one everyday, that’s why I was obese as a kid.

Maddie Strand Mandeville, LA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

My lunch was normally served in little trays, so we did not have lunch boxes. There would be little sections of fruit and small container of milk. We would be in the cafeteria like every other kid at lunch time, we had long tables where we would sit. It depends what they had for the week, there usually was a list of the weekly menu. One week we would get mashed potatoes and meat loaf, green beans, or fruit.

After lunch we had recess, so whenever you finished you could go outside and play. Lunch was about 30 minutes and then recess was 45 minutes before we went back to class. We were happy for lunch, because we got out of class. Though sometimes you would be nervous for like things such as where to sit, would there be a spot open and so on.

Contributors Carlotta Albertini Mika Fernanda Albornoz Vedashree Bankar Johana Brubeck Amruta Buge Mengqian Chen (Dream) Mert Demirel Maria de Falco Johannes Fuchs Christina Huang Yinfan Huang Ning Kang (Connie) Kiki Kita HeeYun Kim (Jacklyn) Anna Kiryanova Marta Klopf Iossie Ng Lei Jingchi Lu (Jessy) Stephen Lurvey Antonio Morales Tsu Chi Niu (Desiree) Azisa Noor Ornella Padalino Sara Risvåg Madeline Strand (Maddie) Yawen Wang (Jenny) Xiaohua Yang (Jim) Wenyi Zhen

Back cover illustration by Jingchi Lu (Jessy).