MODERN A.S.C. DEPOT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 81, 22 July 1942, Page 2

MODERN A.S.C. DEPOT

| HOW THOUSANDS ARE FED NEW ARMY METHODS Imagine the complete food supplies of a large town prepared and distributed ready for cooking from one central depot and you have some idea of the Army Service Corps duties in New Zealand's largest inland camp. Owing to the distance of this camp from the centres of production and distribution everything is brought in in bulk, and made ready for the units in the Supply and Transport Depot. Here is the New Zealand Army's first and only central bakery and first central butchery, now in their second year, and so successful have their operations proved that the system is likely to be extended to other large military establishments. Experienced gained in this camp has shown that not only can better and more varied foods be served to the troops by this method, but also waste can be checked and savings made by the sale of by-products such as fat and bones.

The Supply Depot at this camp has not grown haphazardly, but was planned from the beginning, so that goods are brought into one side of the building by rail, handled by the appropriate section and passed out on the other side to the A.S.C. lorries which distribute the food to the unit cookhouses. Fuel is also handled expeditiously, and the 250 tons of coal and coke used monthly are unloaded from a railway ramp into bins at a lower level, from which the lorries pick up their loads. Firewood comes in also by rail, and the shunting is done at the camp siding by A.S.C. personnel. First of the depot buildings contains thousands of beds in embryo, bales of fresh straw for filling palliasses, and the office of the Camp Transport Officer, who controls the running of the A.S.C. vehicles and troop movements by rail. The main activities of the Supply Depot are housed in a building 700 feet by 50 feet, which allows easy communication between the administrative offices of the Supply and Transport Officer at one end of the building, and the various branches. Units indent daily, 24 hours ahead, for their requirements on the basis of their active daily strength. The day's rations are then made up by the depot staff and collected by the unit quartermaster sections. The grocery store is a housewife's dream, for here are stored from floor to roof tons of supplies which, if they appeal at all, makes a very modest show on grocers' shelves out side' these days. Sugar, rice, tea and are alike are bought by the ton, and condiments in jars by the gross. Jam by tiers of tins and honey in sixty pound containers swell the stacks of goods for two months supply of dry goods ahead of requirements are always held. These are for the current demands of the camp. In addition a separate building holds the war reserve of compressed rations, sufficient to feed thousands of men in the field: for weeks in an emergency. However, under normal training conditions tinned bully beef and the like are not issued, as the Supply Depot keeps up an ample daily is j sue of fresh food to the units. Two rooms in which the temperature can be regulated, are set aside for the storage of fresh fruit and vege-> tables. This camp is fortunate in being able to obtain supplies of fresh vegetables practically the year round from the nearby district, one of the most prolific producers of vegetables in New Zealand,

Sevjeral tons of meat are dealt with daily in the modernly equipped central butchery, where' a master butcher and seven asistants, all tradesmen, have a full time job, aiding during the rush morning hours by extra butchers from the units. Prime ox beef and wether mutton only are bought, and a large V.B. waggon is run in alongside the butchery from Longburn three times a week. The large freezing chamber has a capacity of ten tons of meat, and here are stored the carcases of veal and pork which are the usual Sunday issue to the troops. The A.S.C. butchers chop the meat expertly according to the unit ration requisitions, into joints, chops, steaks, etc., ready for the oven. Nearly 17,000 pounds of small goods are produced in the camp butchery every month. Sausages are turned out, not by the pound, but by the thousand feet by two large sausage filling machines. Two elecs trie choppers, two electric mincers and modern brine pumps for making corned meat are part of the up-«to-date equipment of the butchery.