The men did not have a lot of money.  Most miners would make their lunch pail out of something they could find around the mine.  Some miner’s used old dynamite pails. 

If you were a miner, you had to remember to hang up your lunch pail while working because the mine ponies would knock the lunch pails over and help themselves to a treat (like a dill pickle or a carrot). 

The miner’s brought and ate their lunch underground.