Would you be able to eat the food in the picture above? Does it even look fit for human consumption? Well, that’s what’s being served to members of the Navy. The quality of the food which America’s Navy consumes is dreadfully poor.
United States sailors, while aboard a ship, working around the clock twenty-four hours a day, have this non-descript slop to look forward to during meal breaks.
An aircraft carrier holds over five-thousand sailors. They consist of ship’s company and the air-wing. The higher volume there is of mouths to feed, the more the quality of the food decreases.
While on board a ship, the Navy provides four meals a day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight rations (mid-rats). Breakfast consists of a selection of different cereals. The milk is powdered and comes in a brown cardboard box. There are omelets that don’t look like eggs.Bacon which has a rubber texture and fruit.
Lunch can vary on the day, but mainly consisted of rice or pasta, chicken, tater tots and a salad bar. Dinner typically would be chicken tenders, tater tots, pasta, a salad bar and fruit. Mid-rats (which is around 0400 hours or 4 a.m ) is a combination of the day’s leftovers.
The “mess decks” (cafeteria) has four lines. For each line the wait is about an hour–just to get food! Many sailors are only given a half hour meal. Most sailors survive on ramen noodles that are sent via mail or by purchase in the ship’s store. This is because the ship food is appalling.
The “CS” or culinary specialist, who are the cooks, boil all of the food. Everything including the meat comes in bags. “One day I opened a bag of rice and told my chief there were weevils crawling around,” said Michael Gregory, a Navy veteran “’Anyway, it’s protein,’” he answered.
“I served on the USS Enterprise, my favorite food was the steak, it was awful but at least it was meat,” said Tim Steverding. The appeal of the food is so poor that even some sailors will stock up on cans of Chef Boyardee and will eat it cold.
“Food that prisons turn away are actually served on the tables of U.S Navy vessels, sailors claim.
On the A&E reality show “60 Days In” one former military man was into the Cook County jail as part of a study. He found that the food was often better than what he had in Iraq.
“They had a healthy selectionin the Navy but most of the food tasted like crap,” said Donald Martin, a Navy vet. “When you’re hungry you eat anything.” After working hard all day, training, wouldn’t you want a delicious meal afterwards? The safest bet would be the “quick lines” but all they have are two trays of fried chicken tenders and tater tots. “I survived for six months of chicken tenders and tater tots,” said Martin.
The company that contracts with the United States government to provide food is Sysco. Sysco is an international food distributor that provides food around the globe. While at sea, Sysco products are delivered through vertical replenishments. A cargo ship pulls alongside a navy vessel, they shoot cables across and once attached sends crates of food.
Once the crates reach the ship sailors then break it down and start distributing the contents. Most sailors see the grade of the food on the boxes. The food came in boxes and some said grade F,” said Steverding. Grade F meat is not for human consumption.
