A packed lunch is a lunch prepared at home

Home

A home is a place of residence or refuge. When it refers to a building, it is usually a place in which an individual or a family can rest and store personal property. Most modern-day households contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food. Animals have their own homes as well, either...

 and carried to be eat

EAT

EAT or eat may refer to:* Eating, the process of consuming food, for the purpose of providing for the nutritional needs of an animal* To take a loss in a transaction. The one who absorbs the loss is said to eat the cost of that loss...

en somewhere else, such as school

School

A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...

, a workplace, or at an outing

Excursion

An excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes. It is often an adjunct to a longer journey or visit to a place, sometimes for other purposes....

. The food is usually wrapped in plastic

Plastic wrap

Plastic wrap, cling film , cling wrap or food wrap, is a thin plastic film typically used for sealing food items in containers to keep them fresh over a longer period of time...

, aluminum foil, or paper

Paper

Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....

 and can be carried ("packed") in a lunchbox, paper bag

Paper bag

A paper bag or paper sack is a preformed container made of paper, usually with an opening on one side. It can be one layer of paper or multiple layers of paper and other flexible materials. A bag is used for packaging and/or carrying items....

 (a "sack

Sack

A sack is a bag, especially a large one for carrying or storing goods.Sack may also refer to:* Quarterback sack, a tackle of the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage in American and Canadian football* Sack , an Irish band...

"), or plastic bag

Plastic bag

A plastic bag, polybag, or pouch is a type of packaging made of thin, flexible, plastic film, nonwoven fabric, or plastic textile. Plastic bags are used for containing and transporting goods such as foods, produce, powders, ice, magazines, comic books, chemicals and waste.Most plastic bags are...

. While packed lunches are usually taken from home by the people who are going to eat them, in Mumbai, India, tiffin

Tiffin

Tiffin is lunch, or any light meal. It originated in British India, and is today found primarily in Indian English. The word originated when Indian custom superseded the British practice of an afternoon tea, leading to a new word for the afternoon meal. It is derived from the obsolete English slang...

 boxes are most often picked up from the home and brought to workplaces later in the day by so-called dabbawallas. It is also possible to buy packed lunches from stores in several countries.

In the United States, an informal meeting at work, over lunch, where everyone brings a packed lunch, is a brown-bag lunch or colloquially a "brown bag", and the practice known as brownbagging. There are also white and other color bags for seasonal use.

One such brown bag lunch was used as a deliberate rebuff, of the Chinese hosts, by the United States delegation at peace negotiations in Kaesong

Kaesong

Kaesŏng is a city in North Hwanghae Province, southern North Korea , a former Directly Governed City, and the capital of Korea during the Koryo Dynasty. The city is near Kaesŏng Industrial Region and it contains the remains of the Manwoldae palace. It was formally named Songdo while it was the...

 during the Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

. The Chinese hosts offered lunch and watermelon to the U.S. guests, which the U.S. delegates, who considered lunching with one's opposition to be fraternizing with the enemy

Fraternization

Fraternization is "turning people into brothers"—conducting social relations with people who are actually unrelated and/or of a different class as though they were siblings, family members, personal friends or lovers....

, rejected in favour of their own packed lunches.

See also

• Airline meal
  Airline meal
  An airline meal or in-flight meal is a meal served to passengers on board a commercial airliner. These meals are prepared by airline catering services.The first kitchens preparing meals in-flight were established by United Airlines in 1936....
  
  , often a pre-packaged meal
• Bento
  Bento
  is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware...
  
  
• Lunch box
  Lunch box
  The lunch box, also referred to as a lunch pail or lunch kit, is used to store food to be taken to work or school. The concept of a food container has existed for a long time, but it wasn't until people began using tobacco tins to haul meals in the early 20th century, followed by the use of...
  
  
• Ploughman's lunch
  Ploughman's lunch
  A ploughman's lunch is a cold snack or meal originating in the United Kingdom, served in pubs, sometimes eaten in a sandwich form, composed of cheese ; often cooked ham slices, pickle , apples, pickled onions, salad leaves, bread...
  
  
• TV dinner
  TV dinner
  A TV dinner is a prepackaged frozen or chilled meal that usually comes as an individual portion...