What do the armed forces serve for meals?

Question

I'm particularly wondering about the army and marines, but I'm not even sure if there is a difference between those menus and that of the air force or navy.

During morning, noon, and evening chow, what choices do the enlisted get. What about the officers?

Answer 1

If your question is to garrison meals; the military has established a Basic Allowance for Subsistence or BAS. It is also refered as BDFA (Basic Daily Food Allowance). It is a basic budget item (in the military budgets) based on rate to feed a soldier for a day. It changes monthly due to costs and locations The current rate for FY08 is $294 a month for enlisted. See the second link for breakouts by locations.



Based on a quick rule of thumb the money is divided into 20% for breakfast, 40% for lunch and dinner. Depending on your status Basic Training (taken care of) or Garrison - you pay.



So if you have a 100 people to feed every day - you can spend about $200 for breakfast. But the military requires you to be within a certain percentage of the budgeti.e. you can't have steak and eggs every morning.



As to meals - most garrison dining facilities are contractor run but fall under the auspices of the Food Service Regulations. Menus are usually a 15 or 21 day rotating menu depending on tastes of the soldier - i.e. you wouldn't serve liver and onions if your guys like chicken and dumplings. There are menu boards that determine what is being fixed - tied into costs and nutrition/calories.



There are set menu's that are used - ie Meatloaf. The third link gives you an idea. Food is ordered from vendors like SYSCO foods and is prepared.



Officers pay for the rations when they eat at the mess hall.

But if you don't like what is being served, every post appears to have a Burger King or Popeye's that you pay out of pocket.



Field - its MREs or UGR-A or T-Packs depending on your situation and its the luck of the draw.

Answer 2

The Marine Corps is the only branch of service that has a contract with Sodexho, the company that serves food to prison.



In boot camp, you get to see what the enlisted eat, but you don't get to eat it. As a man, you'll get a lot of sugary foods and whatnot. As a woman, not so much.



During MCT, you'll subsist mostly on MRE's (2 of the 3 weeks of MCT are in the field). On Sunday evenings, you may be given hot rations, and on Sunday afternoon you may get liberty (time off). Bring money, because a food cart comes by.



During MOS school, it's going to be the stuff you saw your DI's eat. Yeah, they'll have the same kinds of foods from boot camp, but you'll get omeletes made to order and whatnot. Each chow hall's food depends on who runs it (there are different managers in each chow hall), but you should get better food once you hit the fleet than in MOS school. You'll also see a "fast chow" and "slow chow" line...fast chow is burgers, breakfast sandwiches, etc. (think fast food), whereas the slow chow line has sit-down meals. A chow hall we had was recently renovated to have different stations, like a "homestyle" station, an "ethnic" station, and the fast chow was so much better, even serving angus burgers.

Answer 3

In the Navy we work from a 6 week menu.



We always have a salad bar and a desert bar. We have a 'cold line' with cold foods. We have a 'hot line' with the menu items. and we have a 'fast line' with burgers.



Breakfasts are all the same. Cooked to order eggs and omelets. toast, fresh fruits, cereals, bacon, sausage, and ham. Milk, coffee.



Lunchs and dinners are different.



The menu is done from a crew meeting. The Supply Officer calls an open meeting where eveyrone has a voice, and he controls his budget. usually they do not like to repeat any one menu item, only once for each 6 weeks.



So T-bone steak might be for one dinner, and lobster another, and pork chops, etc. Lasagna, spaghetti, tacos, meatloaf, casseroles, the lsit goes on.



Mid-rats is served at mid-night. And is usually all of the left-overs from that previous day, heated up again.

Answer 4

In the Australian Armed forces some of the best food that could match any 5 star Restaurant and when i was in Singapore with at RAF Tengah Had the best food in South East Asia the food that comes into the Kitchens is top Quality what some of the cooks do with is is Unbelievable I have not Eaten Porridge since 1959 and i only spent 12 months in Borneo and put on 14 pounds and some of our meals were substituted with War time Rations and i loved Canned cheese and the canned chocolate



What a thumbs down I was there Defending my country for 38 years i know what i am talking about How Dare you



I ONLY TELL THE TRUTH

Answer 5

I'm deployed in Kuwait, we have short order lines at the DFAC which serve that pizza you used to get in elementary school, hot dogs the size of a volvo, nasty chicken wings, french fries, onion rings, a dubious sauce called "chili" and on good days, chicken strips. Sometimes they get creative and throw in saurkraut and some sort of sausage. The other side, which I've been boycotting for about 6 months, generally contains something weird. Like spaghetti noodles with burger chunks, which is called "yakasuba" or something like that. Um, they have the audacity to broil trout once a week, I've never seen anyone eat it. But you can also get hot veggies and the like, so it isn't all bad. A friend of mine used to get super excited aobut "Mexican food day" so....



I get psyched about the salisbury steak and the chicken nuggets.



Ummm... tasteless fruit and veggies on the salad bar...



I'm losing a ton of weight, let's just put it that way.



I hear the food is better up north.

Answer 6

on post, we have chow halls. It's pretty much like any other cafeteria setting. You stand in line, swipe your ID card, grab a tray, and choose from what's there. It's something different every day. Some days it's chicken cordon bleu, sometimes it's steak and baked potato. There's the short order line, too, where you can get a burger and fries, or grilled ham&cheese. Seafood sometimes, too.



It's really not as bad as some people seem to think.

Answer 7

i work at the officers mess in Chester, they have an array of classical starters, and for main course, a 10oz Birkenstein Sirloin steak, cooked to order, balsamic cherry tomatoes, petit pois al la Francaise, twice dipped onion rings in a curry and sesame seed tampura batter, fresh chunky chips, and a rich classical Chasseur sauce. followed by an Xmas ice-cream, rolled in chocolate and homemade honeycomb crunch, nestled with a bloody-mary sorbie. waqshed down with the chef,s compliments.

Answer 8

When you're over there in combat, the only thing you like get is MRE.

Answer 9

When serving in combat, you get more than just MRE's.

Answer 10

during basic training/boot camp



army/marines--- SLOP, EGGS,AND CHILIMACK..... MRE's WHEN YOUR LUCKY



airforce--- STEAK and take-out from nice resteruants



navy--- other Seamen.... LMFAO

Answer 11

food