Gourmet for the Masses
Mass Feeding Facilities
Chapter Responsibilities
The Mass Care committee's Food Service Subcommittee should provide information to be used in compiling a directory of facilities suitable for mass feeding. The directory should include feeding centers in conjunction with shelters, as well as feeding centers away from shelters and should give:
• Location
• Feeding capacity
• Whether or not the facility has equipment installed and a list of the equipment
• Name, address and telephone number of the owner or person to contact for activation.
The Food Services Subcommittee also compiles a list of commercial eating establishments, such as restaurants and cafeterias, and another list of organizations that have their own feeding facilities, such as churches, veteran and other organizations.
A directory of local and national resources should be maintained in an appendix of the Chapter's Disaster Plan. Listing the above plus resources such as cold storage plants, ice companies, truck rental companies, equipment rental companies, gas or propane facilities, repair companies, and most of all, the wholesale resource companies for groceries, produce, dairy, poultry, meat, seafood and baked goods. In addition, a complete listing of all Mass Care vehicle resources within the Chapter should be maintained in the surrounding territory or cluster group.
Organizing Mass Feeding Facilities
Mass Feeding centers provide centralized control of feeding operations and simplify the flow of food supplies to the evacuated population. Most evacuees and victims will eat at the feeding center.
Efficient management of work areas affects the numbers of people that can be fed and the time and labor needed to tend them. Carefully consider the layout, arrangement of equipment, and flow of traffic in these areas.
Receiving Area
It is nice to have special feeding and catering or canteen trucks, but it is not necessary. In fact, most mobile feeding operations are done out of the side of a cargo van or station wagon adapted in the field for feeding operations. Never underestimate the versatility of the cargo van or station wagon to get the job done.
Later in this class we will discuss in detail the various types of feeding vehicles used in Mass Feeding Mobile Operations. In short, here are a few of the vehicles we will discuss:
Using transportable hot & cold food and beverage containers, as well as Mass Care Feeding & Administrative Kits.
Canteen Truck
Commercial style vehicle referred to sometimes as a Cold Truck as it has a large curb side ice bay. These vehicles also have a warming oven in the rear to keep foods hot during transit and serving. They also have an 8-l0 gallon coffee maker with a 15 to 20 gallon water jacket for hot water.
American Red Cross ERV's
Emergency Response Vehicles, as referred to by the National Sector. A multipurpose disaster response van capable of doing many things such as serving hot and cold foods (but no cooking), field re-supply, field casework, field command and other functions.
Mobile Field Kitchen
A completely self-contained mobile kitchen with stoves, griddles, ovens, refrigerators, coffee makers, hot & cold running water, electric generator and plenty of storage.
Portable Military & Fire Service Field Kitchens
We will explore this not often used resource. Military Field Kitchens are portable cooking units usually placed in batteries of 3-6 units which are capable of grilling, baking, boiling, double boiling, roasting, and frying depending upon how the unit is configured in the field. Fire Service Field Kitchens used by both the U.S. Forest Service and many county fire departments are self contained open trailers towed by a support vehicle and have two 6 - foot griddles, two ovens and cold storage.
Re-supply Service
These come in many shapes and sizes, from the plain cargo van which has been converted, to special retired fire service vehicles to 23' & 45' semitrailer M.A.S.C.A.T.'s (Mass Care Trailers) or M.A.S.U.'s (Mobile Administrative Support Units).
Mobile Feeding
Mobile feeding can either be rolling from one stop to another feeding people along the way, or it can be dispatching a vehicle to a single or multiple site(s) to feed a large gathering of people, then moving on to the next site. Either way the same level of food quality, sanitation, safety and timeliness applied in fixed feeding must be applied to mobile feeding operations.
Fixed Feeding
Fixed feeding can take place in shelters, community centers, church halls, schools, feeding centers, commercial restaurants or even under large military tents.
Fixed feeding is just that, food service delivery at a stationary location or one which is not easily moved from one place to another without a great deal of breakdown and logistic movement.
Fixed feeding centers will almost always support mobile feeding operations in the preparation of foods and beverages, due to the vast amount of equipment, utilities and support services in place at these centers. Sometimes a fixed facility may support only mobile operations where there is not sufficient space for victims and workers to eat at that facility. This is when both fixed and mobile operations come into play. The food is prepared at the fixed site, then transported to the serving site, off loaded and taken inside where there are at least holding and cleaning facilities.
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