CF Dining Facilities (DFAC)

[MAJOR_Baker]

Sorry I used a US Army acrynom, don‘t know the CDN Forces term...but hey, I was wondering how it works in the CFs? Are the eating areas divided? i.e. soldiers other than NCOs,NCOs, Senior NCOs, Officers? Is the food any good, and do you have to pay for it?

Meals in garrison cost me:

$1.25-breakfast
$3.25-Lunch and dinner

Soldiers not on separate rations don‘t have to pay. I do, if I elect to eat there.

Most of the time one can swallow the food and keep it down...occassionaly it is even not half bad. How is it in the CF?

 

[Jarnhamar]

The camp i am at in bosnia has the best food i‘ve tasted in the canadian forces in 7 1/2 years. I supose it‘s a matter of cooking for 100 people or 1000+.
Food is usually very good and i‘ve found in comparison to US military bases (atleast army bases) we get more of a choice in what we can eat. In Fort Drum and Fort Knox for example we were just handed meals. Because we have a different varity (as far as i‘ve seen) we don‘t pay a set rate, we pay according to what we have but even then it‘s usually pretty cheap.
Some guys in garrison will pay a set rate, say $300 (?) a month and whatever they buy goes on a card and gets totaled up. Thats a bit of a rip off in my opinion because people have tried and often came no where near reaching their $300 limit. If we go on a tasking and don‘t have access to a mess we usually get meal cards to use which might have a limit of 15 or 20$ a day. When i worked with the airforce we were handed $50 a day, cash. $10 for mcDonalds, 40 on drinks.

The areas are usually seperate having Privates to Master Corporals in one area, Sgt‘s and warrant officers in another annd then officers in a third though if space is lacking the last two are sometimes put together. On training bases we also seperate sometimes accoriding to whos staff and whos candidates.

Airforce and navy messes are usually a little more fancy then army ones.

 

[elscotto937]

Ghost are you in Drvar? I here their food is the best! Normally, there has been separation of dinning halls for the Soldiers, Sgts and Warrant Officers, and Officers. But there is a growing trend within the CF that has a common dinning hall, and a small section for Senior NCOs and Officers. I think that this based on cost, and the relatively small number of officers and SNCOs who actually live in and eat in the mess on a regular basis. However, the drinking messes(bars) are still separate, and I don‘t see that changing in the near future.
It is realively, the same system in Canada, if you live on the base you have the option of paying a set fee for the month, like ghost said, somewhere around 300 dollars. But I live off base and if I go to the mess to eat it usually costs somewhere around 4 Dollars.

 

[Jarnhamar]

$300 a month plus quarters seems like quite a bit, especially considering what a private makes vice a corporal. I‘m in Bihac, i‘ve never actually eaten in Drvar. Zgon and VK are pretty brutal but again it might be because of the difference in numbers the cooks have to prepare food for.

 

[elscotto937]

I rate Drvar as the best, Bihac is a close second, after that there is Zgon, it‘s relatively on par with Banja Luka, Comming in very last for the Canadian Camps is VK (funny that they are all so big there...oh my that was my inside voice) Then there is Glamoc, don‘t arrive hungry there.

 

[Pikache]

Most of the messes I‘ve been at CFB‘s been pretty good.

Mmmmm... Fresh waffles for breakfast at Pet.
Mmmmm... Poutine virtually every meal.
Mmmmm... Thursday night steak night at Trenton.

Summer kitchens, blech.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Galleys onboard ship range from phenomenal to p*ss poor. Some of my best and worst meals have been onboard ship.

 

[squeela1984]

I find training bases (i.e. borden/kingston/st.jean) are high in fat, fried foods. Here in Edmonton we have a more healthy selection. Also Meaford, Ontario has a very good mess health wise. In Kingston, there was an area sectioned off for SGT/WO/MWO/CWO and officers. Everyone else usually stayed together.

 

[squeela1984]

I find training bases (i.e. borden/kingston/st.jean) are high in fat, fried foods. Here in Edmonton we have a more healthy selection. Also Meaford, Ontario has a very good mess health wise. In Kingston, there was an area sectioned off for SGT/WO/MWO/CWO and officers. Everyone else usually stayed together. Here I pay $330 I think a month for food. Quarters are 65.00 for now cause I‘m in temporary transient quarters, but my real permanent room will be about $225 a month. It‘s almost too costly considering I may have a roommate and they do inspections when they want. For this price I should be free of those things. But I‘m just a Pte....it‘s not gonna change for me.

 

[Redeye]

Maj. Baker,

You‘d be able to eat in the BARFF (Base All-Ranks Feeding Facility) on a cash basis, if you were properly dressed, I believe. A friend of mine joined me for dinner at CFB Trenton and merely paid the cost of his meal - it was steak night and it cost him less than $10.

 

[Pikache]

Dress code usually is something presentable. Jeans and shirt is fine.

 

[birdgunner]

I would have to say the worst military eating experience I have ever had was during OP Assistence in Peggy‘s Cove, Nova Scotia. We were deployed to help in salvaging wreckage from the Swiss Air flight crash. Our unit cook decided to make a "special" meal for all.......SWISS STEAK! What a moron! It wasn‘t long before the RSM changed the name to just steak. To bad the grieving families had to see this kind display of compassion!

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Originally posted by kitch:
[qb] To bad the grieving families had to see this kind display of compassion! [/qb]

I worked in the morgue during this and I don‘t think at the time those poor people cared what they ate. They were running on empty trying to deal with a situation that came as a shock to their systems that they had no idea what they ate let alone cared. I know I didn‘t much care for any food then from anyplace then as well.

 

[Slim]

Well I remeber the good old days (late eighties-early ninties-dating myself) When there was a meal card and you ate (get this!!!) as much as you liked! Even seconds were allowed.
While on the ticcs course I ate in the mess in Pet...Much better than it used to be.

 

[Spr.Earl]

By reading the post‘s many have not eaten under the old system?
No scan on what you eat,all the food was fresh not the precooked frozen crap mess hall‘s are giving out now.
All‘s you had was your mess card,all you could eat and the food was all fresh,no frozen crap like the Vile cutlet‘s etc.

Sherwood,you guy‘s still have s$%t on a shingle?
I don‘t mind grit‘s or collard green‘s but s#$t on a shingle is the worst I‘ve ever had,that could be construed as cruel and unusual punishment to one‘s digestive system LOL

 

[Danjanou]

Slim, Earl we‘re showing our age on here.

These guys starting hearing they could get free seconds and you‘ll start a riot in the mess hall.

Of course what goes around, comes around. The those base meal seconds compenstaed (almost) for the times someone screwed up in the field and there wasn‘t enough in the hay boxes to go around. Then the Senior NCOs and Officers (at least in my company ) did without.

 

[Slim]

I remeber my first time at Fort Knox...All night on a bus from T.O and they take us straight to the mess hall. This lady tries to give me GRITS!? I didn‘t know what it was and she didn‘t offer to explain...I know when you‘re in another country you‘re supposed to "eat domestic" but there was no way that that stuff was passing my lips!

 

[primer]

I do remember the meals at A 153 in Borden back in the 80s all you can eat most of the time.Now its Cash cash and cash and .10 cents for jam. The good thing is you can get take out. I like the Yukon Galley in Trenton eating a steak and having a beer.

 

[primer]

Maj Baker when i was at Ft Knox back in 86 why did the servers have to ware the helmets.the food was not that bad

 

[primer]

Maj Baker when i was at Ft Knox back in 86 why did the servers have to wear their helmets for.The food was not that bad.