- Historical Date: September 3, 1941
- Location:Louisiana
Photo: Meals for Company G, 126th Infantry, from Muskegon, are prepared by these cooks, left, Ed Groleau, and right, Dan Timmer. The army allowance for food is 43.15 cents a day for each man. Members of Company G agree that the meals are much better than they get regularly at home, with meat on virtually every menu.
If you’ve been worrying about what Private John Citizen eats in the army, you can stop.
This was the word today from Headquarters, Fourth Corps Area, at Altanta, Ga., along with a copy of Wednesday’s menu for the soliders. The menu was set up for serving the 303,000 men of the Third Army on maneuvers in Louisiana.
Here it is:
MENU, SEPT. 3, 1941
Breakfast
Pears, baked corned beef, hash, soft scrambled eggs, toast, butter, coffee.
Dinner-Midday
Baked ham, baked sweet potatoes, string beans, vegetable salad, bread, butter, bread pudding, coffee.
Supper
Assorted cold cuts, (sliced luncheon meat and sliced pimento cheese), potato salad, pickled beets, bread, jam, butter, coffee.
The Third Army on maneuvers in Louisiana, is using the following:
Enough coffee to float a 20,000 ton ship. A freight train two and one-half miles long would be necessary to carry the 6,696,300 pounds of beef the men are eating.
If all the frankfurters being consumed were laid end to end, they would reach from Norfolk, Va., to New Orleans and have enough left over to encircle both cities.
One hundred and sixty-three thousand hogs have laid down their lives for Uncle Sam to keep the men supplied with bacon and ham for the extent of the maneuvers. The rest of the animals are utilized in sausage, hot-dogs, salt pork and the like.
It would take a champion, egg-a-day hen 100,000 years to lay enough eggs to supply the breakfasts.
Quantities of foods being consumed are astronomical:
Potatoes, 8,756,700 pounds.
Oranges, 13,680,450.
Evaporated mile, 2,478,540 14 1/2 oz. cans.
Butter, 1,624,080 pounds.
Bread, 11,271,600 pounds.
Apples, 10,852,550.
Sugar, 2,402,790 pounds.
Whereas most housewives think of condiments in terms of “pinches” and “dashes,” the quartermaster does things in a different manner. Salt used in the maneuvers will total 545,000 pounds, and a mountain of black pepper, 45,640 pounds of it, will be consumed. Only 2,272 gallons of vanilla and a like quantity of lemon extract are being used. Baking powder is rationed by the five-pound can and 18,180 of these are being used.
To simplify the feeding of the men and the preparation of the food, the army divides its menus up into quantities sufficient for 100 men. The menus are written and rations issued on a basis of these messes. A real army menu might call for 50 pounds of beef, 40 pounds of bread, 35 pounds of potatoes and the like.
Although soldiers eat well, Uncle Sam spends only 47 cents a man each day to supply him with food. This is made possible through purchases and modern methods of storing foods. Warehouses are located all over the country and non-perishable supplies are stored in them months in advance of actual need.
Army menus are planned far ahead of actual need. This is done so they may be examined and passed on by a board which has had special training in dietetics. Every menu contains enough vitamins, proteins and calories, to supply any man doing the hardest sort of labor.
If you’ve been worried about what your solider eats, you can stop. The Quartermaster corps has the situation well in hand.
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