All food preparation must be period. Plastic wrappers, coolers, or modern containers are restricted to the tents, out of sight. Hot dogs or Dinty Moore stew are not acceptable. Better yet, many of us learn how to eat as they did then, and you will be authentic to a tee with little effort. Salt pork, coffee, hardtack, beans, rice, and some in-season vegetables will be just the thing.
Food is prepared in small three to five man messes, individually, or as a complete company.
There is no rules for this, the men are left to their own devices, and no one has starved, or died, yet. Reenactors start showing up at the event site Friday afternoon, evening, or early Saturday morning. The camps are set up, all the equipment is organized, and all the modern items are removed from the camp. It is now the 1860's. Camp fires burn, and coffee is brewed.