[kerosene]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Kind of. There's some overlap depending on the context. If I say, "I brought a sack lunch," chances are good I do mean that it is in one of those ubiquitous brown paper bags. If it's in a lunchbox, I would just say, "I brought my lunch."

However, if I am attending a conference, for example, the flyer may say "Lunch will be provided," which likely means a serve-yourself low-cost catered spread, anything from salads and soups, to barbecue, to pizza. But if it says "A sack lunch will be provided," it means premade sandwiches packaged up in bundles with a cookie and a bag of chips (crisps,) or somesuch. You might get to choose between the ham sandwich bundle or the turkey sandwich bundle, but there won't be a lot of variety. Notably, in this case the sack lunch will almost certainly not be in a brown paper bag, but rather a plastic or styrofoam container of some sort. Maybe even a white paper bag. The sandwiches were still put together by a professional company, and professional companies don't use brown paper bags, because that's what kids take to school.

Except they don't, really. Kids take fun colorful lunchboxes. By the time they are too cool for awesome lunchboxes, and might in theory want it in a nondescript paper bag instead, they are just buying their lunch from Taco Bell or whoever else has contracted to sell fast food on campus.

I use to be so jealous of those kids with the nice plastic lunch boxes with a matching thermos. I had this old metal one with Rainbow Brite on it or some such.

Places I have worked we actually did get brown sack lunches for "brown bag meetings." I think it just depends on the caterer.