Evening star., 1940-10-06
'Home-Cooked Food for Army
Will Cost u. S. $5O0,000 Daily
Each Soldier Will Eat 40 Cents Worth
Daily; Meals Will Be Well Balanced

Home cooked" food for the Ma
tons soldiers will cost the Govern.
ment more than a half million dol
lars a day.
That is an Army officers estimate
Of the daily food bill by early next
year, when the selective service pro-
gram is expected to swell the Army
to 100000 men.
Each man will eat from 40 to 4i
cents worth of food day, depend
ing on the section of the country
where he is stationed. The variation
comes from the differences in the
costs of vital foods in various locall-
ties.
Forestalling comments from house
wives that they can't feed each
member of their family for 40 cents
q day. Mai. J. J. Powers. chief OF
the subsistence branch, supply divi-
sion. Office of the Quartermaster
General. points out that the 40 cents
is the cost of only the food and does
not include such expenses as labor
fuel or kitchen utensils. Then. too
the Army goes in for large scale
buying.
Feeding System Not Altered.
The tremendous expansion in the
Army has not altered the system
of feeding the men. Of course
where 40 pounds were ordered by
the quartermaster, 12O pounds will
be ordered. But the system is the
same.
The uuartermaster in each camp
sets up a credit in his book for an
average of s1290 a month for a
company of 100 men. Each company
has its own mess officer and mess
sergeant who buys whatever they
want against their credit. Should
they come out ahead at the end of
the month, they can apply the diff
ference on the next months credit
or spend the remainder on food IN
the neighborhood.
In that way. each company &C
tually gets a different menu, as each
section of the country gets different
food For instance, soldier In the
deep South would turn up his nose at
Boston baked beans. but give him
corn pone and hominy gritS and
he's a happy soldier. The armed
forces in Montana prefer beef steak
and plenty of potatoes. And the SOL
der in the Widdle West likes corn
syrup on his hot cakes, rather than
the sorghum syrup the Southern
soldiers choose or the maple syrup
of the New England contingent.
Set Menus Discouraged.
The Army discourages set minus
and encourages "eye appeal" Spin
ach and string beans are frowned
on if they appear on the same plate.
Too much green, says the Army. A
green vegetable and white one,
like potatoes. is preferred Carrots,
Of course, have lots of "eye appeal"
The garrison ration which is
what the conscript can expect when
he gets to camp, is made up OF SO
different basic foods. including three
or four different meats. vegetables,
fruits. flour, sugar, salt, etc. Each
man is entitled to certain guam
tity of certain quality of each OF
the 80 items daily.
It's up to the mess sergeant to
decide whether the 100 men get ice
cream once week. twice a week or
not at all. But it's the cook who
makes the broth and, ultimately
makes the men happy.
Schools Teach Cooks.
To provide an Army full of good
cooks. the Government in 1921 set
up II schools for cooks and bakers.
Until the present crisis. the course
lasted four months and some 40 men
were turned out each month. The
mess sergeants, all graduate cooks.
remained an additional month for
instruction in planning menus,
serving the food attractively and
directing the activities of the cooks.
The increased demand for cooks
has made it necessary to reduce the
course to two months which the
Army expects. will help take care OF
the new men pouring into the
camps. A number Of volunteers
who ask to be cooks as we'll as con-
scripts with cooking experience will
be sent Immediately to the school
National Guard units will bring
their own company cooks to camp
The Army figures it may be
slightly short on cooks at the start
but it is in far better shape than al
the outbreak of the last war because
the planning has been going or
since 1921. Some of the camps are
well over their quota of cooks ano
these men will be transferred.
Cooks in the Army get specialist
rating which entities them, though
privates, to s6 to So more salary
month than the other enlisted men
Type Of Meals Provided.
The conscripts can expect thl:
kind of meal:
For breakfast, fruit fresh in sea-
son: either hot or cold cereal, g
half pint of fresh milk to pour over
the cereal or drink. hot cakes OF
some other hot course like ham ane
eggs, plenty of white bread or toast
butter and coffee.
For dinner, served at noon OF
later, depending on the camps
training schedule, soup or salad,
main course of roast beef ane
mashed potatoes or pork and apple
sauce or some other meat combina.
ton. two vegetables, q beverage ane