box social

noun, a fundraising event at which boxed lunches are auctioned to raise funds, often such that the purchaser shares the meal with the person who prepared it (COD)

“Well the social life was much different than now. We didn’t have television. We didn’t have hydro then either. And so they had the box social.”

“I remember the first one that I got — at one of those box socials — was Nancy.”

“There would be house parties too and box socials — they called them box socials. Everybody took a box with a meal in it. Or a lunch. And they put numbers on them. And the girls would take them, and the boys would draw the numbers, and they would have to eat with the person.”

“We used to have them at school, and it was like before the school year was out. Like they’d have a box social.”

“We used to have box socials down at Number One.”

“But you had box socials, something you’ve never heard tell of.”

“What is a box social? Well it’s just something like some of these picnic things or some of that.”

“We used to have box socials. Well the women all packed boxes, and then the men, they bid on them, you see. So if you bought this box, and whoever brought the box, then you had to have supper with them.”