LESS WASTE IN ARMY

Southland Times, Issue 24759, 2 June 1942, Page 4

LESS WASTE IN ARMY

Stricter Control Over Rations The amount of food wasted in the training camps in New Zealand during the last war was enormous. At least it was so in Trentham camp. Perfectly good food, such as half loaves of bread and half pounds of butter, was thrown into the pig buckets. Though the waste was proof of the liberality of the ration, it also indicated a laxity of control. This laxity arose, at least in part, from the system under which the men had their meals in their own huts. What are known in the Army as the dry rations were kept in a cupboard in each hut. As the prescribed quantities of dry rations were always issued at the prescribed times, and as these quantities were liberal, it was generally not long before parts of loaves of bread and parts of pounds of butter began to clutter-up the cupboard, and here they generally remained until a mess orderly decided it was time for a clearance. Then the odds and ends went into the pig bucket. The root of the trouble was that once the dry rations were issued they passed out of the control of the responsible officer. CENTRAL MESS ROOMS Things were different in Sling Camp, England, where the men had their meals in central mess halls. The prescribed dry rations were issued at each meal, and what was left over was taken back into the mess room store. In this way much unnecessary waste was avoided. They could not afford to waste food in Britain in the last war any more than they can in this. Though there is no shortage of essential foods in New Zealand, total war demands the elimination of all waste, and it was, therefore, interesting to find that at a Base Training Depot visited by a representative of The Southland Times the men have their meals in one large mess room. There is, therefore, much less waste in dry rations at this camp than there was in Trentham during the last war. The economical housewife knows how to convert odd portions of bread into tasty puddings, and Army cooks do likewise. Left-over butter also goes to use in the cookhouse instead of to feeding pigs. A central mess is also a better system of dealing with the cooked foods. There must obviously be less waste in the system under which each man is issued with his meal direct from the cookhouse than in the system under which a couple of mess orderlies go to the cookhouse and get the food for 20 or more men. In the Base Training Depot the men file into the dining hall carrying their plates and are served with their food before they take their places at the tables. There are two or three serving points, according to the number of men in camp. The service is quick and efficient. As many as 650 men have been served in 18 minutes. The food, too, is served piping hot because the cookhouse is right alongside the dining hall. There is no danger of the food becoming cool, as there was when it had to be carried to a distant hut in Trentham. LIBERAL RATION SCALE ' The strict control exercised over the issue of rations does not mean that the soldiers are fed with a niggardly hand. Orders are orders in the Army, and the ration scale is the equivalent of an order. That the scale is liberal is shown by the following daily amounts allowed for each man: Bread, 11b; fresh meat (including sausages, saveloys and bacon), l£lb; potatoes, 11b; fresh vegetables, 12oz; fresh milk, lpint; .butter, 3oz; sugar, 3oz. These are the main but by no means all the items in the ration scale. All foodstuffs in the Army are rationed, 'even pepper at an infinitesimal quantity a man a day. It will be noted that the soldier gets a bigger ration of sugar than the civilian. The soldier is allowed 21oz a week. The civilian ration is 12oz. The butter ration is for all purposes, and so includes any butter used in cooking or with potatoes or vegetables when they are mashed. The ration of 3oz a day may seem small. Many New Zealanders use butter with a generosity that often surprises people from the Old Country, where the use of butter on the table is a sign that the family is at least moderately. well off. But 3oz a day is really a fair allowance .It works out at just under a pound a day for five men and is liberality itself compared with the war-time ration of the Old Country of 2oz a head weekly. COMPETENT COOKS The issue of a liberal ration is, of course, only half the battle towards seeing that the soldier is well fed. Good food can be spoiled by bad cooks, and this happened often enough in the Army. No doubt it has happened in this war as it did.in the last, but it is probably true to say that the Army authorities are more alive today than ever they were to the importance of the cook. This does not mean that tne Army requires the services of those experts of the culinary art known as chefs, but it does insist on having men capable of cooking a plain meal well and every endeavour is made to see that this condition is fulfilled. A would-be Army cook has to serve an apprenticeship, and if he does not show adaptability for the job, he does not remain in the cookhouse.