The whole question of the box lunch presents a serious problem, when we
consider the large number of children who must depend upon it for their
noon-day meal. This meal should be so constituted as to make it a real
meal and not a makeshift. The same principles which govern the
preparation of the meal should govern the preparation of the lunch box.
It is said that the school lunch should consist of "something starchy
and something meaty, something fat and something fibrous, something
sweet and something savoury".
With so many varieties of breads, meats, cheese, jams, etc., innumerable
kinds of sandwiches may be made. For example, there are brown, graham,
rye, raisin, nut, and date breads, and equally many kinds of meat. Such
variety makes it quite unnecessary to have an egg sandwich or
hard-boiled eggs in the lunch box each day. While eggs are very valuable
in the diet, a lunch with hard-boiled eggs five times each week becomes
monotonous, and the appetite of the consumer flags. With skill and
thought one can make little scraps of meat or other "left-overs" into
attractive sandwiches. Ends of meat, ground and mixed with salad
dressing or cream, make delicious sandwich fillings.