EFFICIENCY THEIR MOTTO

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 290, 5 September 1942, Page 5

EFFICIENCY THEIR MOTTO

Housewives On Duty With V.A.D. Dietary Group

Provided she can do a really hard day s work, no woman is considered too old to be a member of the dietary group of the V.A.D., Wellington. The 70 women who comprise the section are mainly housewives with many years of home cookery as a bandy background for the training and service they have undertaken so elhcientlv.' Some of them are white haired, but all can work and their efforts when in charge of a large and busy kitchen are a triumph of team work. To date each has 500 hours’ service to her credit in the casualty clearing station kitchen, which the members staff .in groups of 24 a day whenever the station is in use. Besides this, they cheerfully give up one morning a week from their own household duties to help at the Allied Forces’ Club in Manners Street. Mrs. Marshall McDonald is in charge of the dietary group. All expert cooks, the women attended at the Wellington Hospital to learn the principles of bulk cooking under the direction of the hospital dietitian. While there they worked With the kitchen staff., . When on duty at the clearing station the women staff the kitchen without any additional help from men for the heavier jobs. They prepare the vegetables, cook meals, clean the kitchen and .wash dishes with an efficiency that is admirable. One -woman confessed that at busy times she has stood by the dish-washing machine feeding it for five hours on end, while others are just as busy collecting the cleaned dishes from the other end. Though cooking is their regular ' .A.U. job, the women have their Red Cross nursing examinations as well. They are prepared' for any emergency.