20 Old School Packed Lunch Items From The '90s That Stir Up Serious Nostalgia

For a child growing up in the 1990s, lunch was a fun time of the day. Before the days of widespread internet access and food blogs, parents weren't serving smashed avocado and organic energy bars in a bamboo box. Instead, lunch boxes were crammed with luminous lollipops, exploding candy, and crackers masquerading as sandwiches.

In the '90s, opening your lunchbox to see what was inside — and importantly, what was inside that of your friends at the same table — was an exciting and mouth-watering moment. Would you find a pouch of Capri-Sun, a Fruit Roll-Up, or a Kudos bar, and would you be planning to trade with someone for a better option? If you grew up in the '90s, it's time to take a trip down memory lane with a look at some of the most iconic lunch items from that decade. Join us as we remember 20 old-school packed lunch items from the '90s that stir up serious nostalgia.

If your parents were reluctant to add a candy bar to your lunchbox — perhaps not realizing that you would definitely find a way to buy, borrow, or trade one in the playground — you may have gotten lucky with a Kudos bar instead. They were marketed as a "simply nutritious" granola bar drizzled with chocolate, but since there were plenty of collaborations with candy brands such as M&M's and Snickers, they happily filled the sweet treat quota.

The texture of the oat-filled candy bar was both crunchy and chewy, and incredibly satisfying. Whether chocolate chip or peanut butter was your favorite, it was incredibly easy to polish off one or two of these "healthy" bars straight after lunch.

There aren't many snacks that transport us back to the '90s more than the classic Twinkie. Often served as an after-lunch dessert in kids' lunch boxes, they were a brilliantly sugary treat that was prized by grade schoolers everywhere.

The golden exterior is instantly recognizable, and they were filled with a tasty vanilla cream, though the original version in the 1930s was actually banana. By the time they had their heyday in the '80s and '90s, vanilla was very much the dominant filling. Whether your technique was to nibble around the edges and leave the cream in the center till last, or simply take a big bite that combined all of the flavors at once, the Twinkie was a treat that everyone enjoyed. If you opened your lunch box and saw a Twinkie in its cellophane wrapper looking back at you, you knew your afternoon was off to a great start.

Cheese and crackers are a favorite snack for many kids, but packing them into a lunchbox meant a bit of preparation — none of us had time for that in the morning — and a risk that they would be squashed by a can of soda and end up in crumbs by lunchtime. Enter, Handi-Snacks, the convenient solution that put cheese and crackers back on the menu in a mess-free form.

The plastic container had salty crackers on one side and gooey processed cheese on the other, in a luminous orange shade that we didn't question at the time. Whether you chose to spread the cheese sensibly with the included red plastic stick, or impatiently dunked the crackers straight in, Handi-Snacks were immensely satisfying and made you feel just that little bit grown up.

Is there any more memorable lunchbox snack than popping candy? Just the mention of it probably triggers memory of the amazing sensation of having the dust explode on your tongue — not a feeling you are going to forget, even 30 years later!

Sold as Pop Rocks here in the US, the popping candy came in exciting foil packets with various colored nuggets that looked unassuming, until you had the pleasure of placing them — or let's be honest, pouring them — into your mouth. As the fireworks in your mouth began, you felt a type of happiness that has been hard to beat since then.

The magic behind popping candy lies in the carbon dioxide that is added in the production process. Once the crystals come into contact with saliva in the mouth, the bubbles of gas are released, causing the delightful sensation that we just couldn't get enough of. Available in flavors including tropical punch and watermelon, they were likely packed with artificial colors, but their bold hues just made them all the more appealing to '90s kids. Three decades on, we can still vividly recall the amazing feeling of Pop Rocks on the tongue.

As a kid, taking a brightly colored Squeezit bottle out of your lunchbox and twisting the top off before quenching your thirst felt like a real privilege. Designed to be squirted straight from the bottle into your mouth — or let's be honest, all over one of your friends — '90s kids didn't need to be convinced to keep hydrating when these iconic drinks were around.

Classic flavors such as Chucklin' Cherry and Mean Green Puncher bore little resemblance to the fruits they were claiming to be from, but we didn't really care. They were sweet, thirst-quenching, and most importantly, fun. The only people in the '90s who didn't have a fondness for Squeezits were the teachers who had to put up with dozens of kids bouncing off the walls after lunch on an extreme sugar rush.

Every parent knows that adding a piece of fruit to a child's lunchbox is a responsible decision, and in the '90s, that would often come in rolled-up form. Fruit Roll-Ups were released in 1980, but they saw the height of their popularity in the '90s, in part due to the newly introduced mascot, The Great Rolupo. With his introduction came a novel idea — peel out shapes within the roll-ups, ranging from dinosaurs to racing cars. 

Which fruit the neon-colored fruit leather was claiming to originate from is anyone's guess, but it kept parents satisfied that their children were getting a portion of fruit, and it kept '90s kids delighted as they ate the shapes, then rolled the remaining candy into a ball to chew it to completion.

Ring Pops were the first introduction to bling for many '90s kids, and what a delicious experience it was. After all, who doesn't want candy that you can wear on your person while running around the playground? The basic premise of a Ring Pop was a lolly without a stick, and being able to slip it over your finger rather than carry it with you certainly took the exhaustion out of a middle school lunchtime.

Ring Pops were first created in 1977, but the '90s were very much their heyday, and trying to fit multiple Ring Pops onto adjacent fingers is a fond memory for many '90s kids. It was actually a very economical snack, as one Ring Pop could happily last you a few hours, as long as you could manage to keep it out of sight of your teacher as you surreptitiously sneaked a lick during class.

Capri-Sun was a drink that was made for lunchboxes. Opening up your lunch to see that silvery pouch gleaming back at you was always a joy, and the variety of flavors meant it never got boring.

The lightweight, compact pouch that was capable of free-standing on the table was what made Capri-Sun so unique, and led to its huge popularity in the 1990s. While most other lunchbox drinks were packed with radioactive shades of coloring and sweeteners to match, company owner Rudolf Wild was determined as far back as 1931 to create foods using only natural ingredients. Though it was launched in Germany as Capri-Sonne in 1969, it took until the early '90s to become a snacking sensation in the U.S. With flavors such as blackcurrant, tropical, and, of course, classic orange, this was a lunchbox drink that kept every kid, and their parents, happy.

Lunchables were the schoolkid equivalent of a self-service buffet, though probably not one that adults would want to return to for a second portion. This DIY savory snack consisted of a plastic tray with separate compartments for the cheese, meat — or something pretending to be meat — and crackers. It didn't look particularly appetizing, but as kids, we didn't care, and getting to build your own lunch was an excitement still not forgotten. 

The classic version was ham and cheese, but pizza-flavored ones were also a bit hit. They were packed with salt, but that just made them utterly delicious, and we all had our favorite way to build them, including creating a tower using every piece, and attempting — but failing — to eat it in one go.

Sandwiches were, of course, a staple of '90s lunch boxes, as they still are now, and no sandwich sums up a school packed lunch quite like the bologna sandwich. Often paired with a slice of cheese, bologna meat was relatively inexpensive, but deeply satisfying, and made an easy-to-eat snack that left plenty of time to run off the excess energy before the end of lunch.

Served between two slices of white bread and smeared with mustard or mayo if you were feeling fancy, the sandwich allowed parents to include a source of protein in the lunchbox that the kids were pretty sure to eat. Though the bologna sandwich is now making a gourmet comeback, nothing can beat the nostalgic memory of unwrapping the slightly squashed sammy from its plastic wrap and tucking into the meaty interior. 

One of the more controversial lunchbox drinks, Sunny Delight was a popular inclusion in school kids' backpacks in the early '90s. Its sweet flavor and bright orange colour made it a sought-after lunchtime refreshment, and parents were pleased to give their children a healthy drink rather than soda.

At the end of the '90s, things took a sour turn for Sunny D as it emerged that the drink didn't quite measure up to a fresh orange juice in terms of its nutrition, and a girl turning orange due to overconsumption didn't help either. But for a generation of kids, Sunny Delight made a school lunch great, and the controversy simply cemented its legendary status.

Whoever thought of taking the mechanics behind a glue stick and turning it into a candy was clearly some sort of marketing genius. With just a tiny glimpse of the sugary treat showing when you opened a Push Pop, a quick flick pushed the entire stick into view, and allowed you to enjoy a lollipop-style treat with less mess on your fingers.

Flavors included orange, strawberry, and watermelon, though the main ingredient was undoubtedly sugar. But to be fair, the innovative packaging meant that you could happily save the remainder of your Push Pop until later in the day, so maybe they were actually a lesson in restraint! Push Pops were made by the same company as Ring Pops, meaning the Topps Company was responsible for many of our fun, sugary '90s memories.

Though Doritos are still one of the widest-selling snacks in the U.S., the 3D version didn't survive much past the turn of the century, making 3D Doritos the stuff of nostalgic memories. Compared to regular tortilla chips, they had a puffy texture that made them feel lighter and less filling — probably because it took fewer of them to fill up the bag.

Sporting typically bold Doritos flavors, including nacho cheese and jalapeno cheddar, the snacks were a huge hit with '90s school kids, with the signature Doritos crunch but an airy middle. They made a brief comeback in the early 2020s, but fans of the original were not impressed, proving that some nostalgic childhood memories are best left as exactly that.

For '90s kids who loved yogurt but were so over the idea of using a spoon, Go-Gurt arriving at the end of the decade was a game changer. Instead of scooping, it introduced the idea of squeezing yogurt straight into your mouth, which was a revelation at the time. Suddenly, the mess and inconvenience of a regular yogurt was gone, meaning the dairy product was firmly back on the lunchbox wishlist.

Early flavors included strawberry and vanilla, but the range soon expanded to include glow-in-the-dark packaging and root beer float flavors. It didn't matter that the yogurt was pretty warm by lunchtime; it was still a satisfying snack that technically fell into the "healthy" category, and that kept everyone happy.

As if Ritz crackers weren't a great enough nibble, along came Ritz Bitz Sandwiches with an even more lunch-appropriate snack. Two Ritz crackers with a filling tightly wedged between them, with a choice of either cheese or peanut butter.

Though their resemblance to an actual sandwich was tenuous, Ritz Bitz sandwiches gave '90s kids an excuse to eat snacks for lunch. Their portability meant they could be eaten anywhere, without the need to keep them cool on a hot day, and could be carried in jacket pockets or backpacks until hunger arrived. And if you had a pack of cheese flavor but were in the mood for some PB, there would usually be someone in the playground happy to do a trade.

Remember when the only way to eat cheese in a lunchbox was as a flat square or diced from a block? After the arrival of Cheesestrings (aka string cheese) in the mid-90s, suddenly we could eat cheese in stringy form, and it changed everything. Being able to peel off a strand of cheese whenever you fancied was so much more fun than regular cheese, and it turned eating dairy for lunch into a bit of a game.

While it may have the sense of a processed product, particularly the packaging, Cheesestrings are made from real cheese that is stretched into long strands. This made them a favorite with parents, knowing they could add a protein-rich snack without any nasties to their kids' lunchboxes.

Sandwiches and snack foods were all very good for lunch, but sometimes a warm meal could be a real treat, if your mum or dad had time to heat it up and pour it into the Thermos for you. In the '90s, Chef Boyardee microwavable cups were one of the classic options for taking a hot meal, and the variety of options meant they never got boring.

With meatballs, beefaroni, and lasagna just some of the comforting options, it was easy to go to school with a hot meal waiting for you in your backpack, especially in the colder months. The portion from one cup was just right for a school lunch, and guaranteed envious glances from your classmates as the smell wafted toward them.

For those who liked to dunk their cookies rather than eat them in the regular manner, Dunkaroos were the perfect '90s lunchbox snack. A plastic tray housed the cookies on one side and the frosting on the other, meaning you could enjoy the taste of your cookie as freshly dipped as possible.

Available in classic flavors including vanilla and chocolate, they were the ideal break time snack or after lunch dessert, and felt more substantial than a lot of the other candies around at the time. The kangaroo-shaped cookies made the process lots of fun, and it was a regular challenge to see how much of the frosting you could manage on one cookie.

Gushers were an explosive treat in '90s lunch boxes, with the fruit center bursting out as soon as you bit into it. When we were told to try and eat a rainbow of fruit, this probably wasn't what they had in mind, but the blueberry, strawberry, and tropical flavors certainly helped to cover all color bases.

Made from the same company as Fruit Roll-Ups, Gushers consisted of a chewy outside, with a liquid center that "gushed" out once you broke into the shell. They were perfect for lunchboxes, as they gave the illusion of being fruit-based, but kept sugar-hungry kids happily bursting them in their mouths.

Amongst all the luminous candy, impostor sandwiches, and questionable orange drinks, there were occasions when healthy food did actually sneak into '90s lunch boxes. In many cases, it was in the form of raisins, and Sun-Maid was the brand of choice for most.

The classic red cardboard box was a familiar sight, containing a bite-sized portion of dried fruit that was an ideal size for a post-lunch boost. While not quite as fun as a Pop Rocks or a Push Pop, the raisins were a tasty treat that kids devoured, and parents could rest knowing they'd had a dose of vitamins and fiber.