Chapter Vii. Mess Hall and Feeding Problems

CHAPTER VII. MESS HALL AND FEEDING PROBLEMS Organization of Mess Operations A major adjustment required of evacuees by the conditions of center life was an adaptation to a system of mass feeding. The familial board did not exist, and, instead, residents of each block (averaging about 850 persons) were fed in block mess halls under a highly centralized organization for the procurement, preparation and consumption of food. On the basis of previously prepared menus made out for the entire project population, food was procured on a wholesale basis, received at the central warehouses and re-distributed on an eouitable basis to block mess halls where a staff of paid workers cooked and served all meals to the block residents. The organization had the advantage of reducing the per unit cost of food, "and families were relieved of preparing and serving meals. In fact, there was no alternative to mass feeding for the individual dwelling units were not equipped with cooking facilities. But centralized feeding necessarily reduced the range of flexibility in adapting meals to individual taste, disrupted family habits related to the eating situation, and created feelings of insecurity about food as the people were made completely dependent upon the mess halls for their meals. The need of adjustment to mess hall circumstances undoubtedly constituted one of the important irritations to the evacuees. The Mess Management Section was a sub-division of the Transpor- tation and Supply Division headed by Mortimer C. Cooke. Directly responsible to Mr. Cooke was the Chief Project Steward who was allot- Mess Hall ted three assistants for a project of 15,000 population, including, a project steward and two assistant project stewards. For a period of three months following the opening of the project, the Section was headed by Luther Stultz who, unfortunately, had no Caucasian administrative assistance during most of this period as W.R.A. personnel policies were still somewhat indefinite. Mr. Stultz plainly became discouraged by the mess hall troubles and difficulties en- countered in the early months at Tule Lake, and by September 1942 had himself reassigned to another project despite the fact that he was comparatively well liked by the evacuees as indicated by the petition of the Community Council to have him retained.1/ From September 1942 until after Tule Lake was transformed into a Segre- gation Center, the Mess Management Section was supervised by Chief Project Steward Ralph S. Peck. Unlike his predecessor, Mr. Peck very soon acquired the disfavor of the evacuees for reasons which were not entirely his fault, and, in turn, developed a strong dis- like for the evacuees v/hich colored his entire career at the project. The center of controversy in the section was Project Steward Pilcher who had been appointed to the Tule Lake staff during the latter part of Mr. Stultz's stay, and immediately aroused an ouster demand from the evacuees when Pilcher was identified as the same man with whom the Sacramento people had met much trouble when he was super- vising mess halls at the Walerga Assembly Center. Despite the pro- tests of Mr. Peck and others of the appointed personnel, and the re- luctance of Mr. Shirrell to discharge him, Mr. Pilcher was released in October 9142. Other staff personnel joined and left the project 1/ Tulean Dispatch, August 6, 1942. Mess Halls -3- "but in the spring of 1943 had settled upon three assistant project stewards, Messrs. Hoover, Wetzel, and Emerson. In addition to the appointed personnel, the administrative staff of the section had a number of evacuee assistant stewards headed by George Kumasawa. These men served in a supervisory ca- pacitjr over the evacuee mess workers and acted as liaison officers between the latter and the appointed personnel. The individual mess hall was supervised by the chief cook with the assistance of the senior steward and generally had from 32 to 36 workers. The typical staff included: No. of Workers Position 1 chief cook 1 senior steward 5 cooks 5. kitchen helpers 10 waiters or v/aitresses 6 dishwashers 2 laundresses 3 janitors 3277 Total More or less complete control over the mess hall was vested in the chief cook. He had the responsibility of hiring and organizing the mess crew although in this matter the senior steward, block man- ager and others sometimes intervened. Although the menu was pre- determined by the W.R.A., the chief cook could decide how the food was to be prepared and, at his discretion, often deviated consider- ably from the menu. Generally, he was the final authority in deter- mining the rules of the mess hall; he could, for instance, grant or Mess Halls -4- deny the use of his mess hall for meeting and social purposes. He, with the senior steward, were the chief representatives of the mess crew in all relations with the block residents, and they also were the arbiters in settling disputes within the crew. The suc- cess of the mess hall and the contentment of the block residents rested in no spall part upon the ability of the chief cook as a cook but also as a leader and diplomat. The hours of the mess workers were perhaps as irregular as in any work group. The chef, for example, was on hand four hours in the morning, two hours at lunch, and two hours at supper, with his work day spread from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The second cook worked from 4:00 a.m. to 12:00 m.; the dinner cook from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m Waiters or waitresses worked broken hours throughout the day although they were seldom required to work a fwlrl eight hours. Unlike the rest of the project which took its day off from work on Sundays, the mess crew necessarily had to stagger the rest day throughout the week because of the continuous mess operations. Initially, the only work- er in the mess hall receiving $19 a month was the chef, but in recog- nition of the long hours and rather strenuous work, especially on hot days, of all the cooks, the latter two were given $19 ratings thus relieving some of the tension which at first accumulated among the cooking staff. Workers in mess operations constituted 34$ of the evacuee employees of the project and was by far the largest single work group. Of the 2,255 employees in mess operations, 20% received a $19 wage while the remainder were in the $16 classification, a proportion of the upper bracket workers that was slightly higher than the average for the entire project. Mess Halls -5- While the reasons for evacuee discontent with mess operations are not easily isolated, their articulated complaints were mainly directed at the ouantity and quality of the food served in the mess- halls, a difficulty that was thought to have its source in administrative limitations and inefficiency in the procurement and distribution of foods. The system of procurement and distribution was bound by a number of important regulations. On the basis of es- timated needs for the project, all food procurement had to be handled through the Army Quartermaster Corps with requisitions placed 50 days in advance of delivery at the project warehouses. Initially, reouisitions required clearance with the W.R.A. Regional Office be- fore receiving action from the Array Qaurtermaster Depot, but the extra step was eliminated when it was found to result in undue de- lays. The estimates of future needs were largely calculated from menus prepared in advance which required of the chief project steward that he declare the kind and amount of component items, give consideration to the availability of the individual items, and keep the cost within the maximum of 45^ per person per day. To further complicate the feeding of 15,000 people, a public relations problem existed for the chief steward, for public accusations of "coddling the evacuees" often used as illustrations the kind and quantity of foods entering relocation centers by contrast with what was avail- al^e on the open market. Rationing had to be strictly observed, and stewards were warned, "At no time shall evacuees' food have higher specifications than or exceed cuanitity what the civil population may obtain in the open market."!/ But because of advance requisi- 1/ Administrative Instruction No. 53 (Rev.), Jan. 29, 1943, p.2 Mess Halls -6- tioning it sometimes happened that specific food shortages which sudáenly appeared on the open market (due to wartime conditions) did not affect project supplies. On the other hand, even with the utmost ex^ereize of care in preparing estimates, it was impossible to anticipate accurately all the future needs of the project and not avoid occasional shortages. The initial error of this mess operations organization was not that food supplies depended upon advance estimates, but that the system was insufficiently flexible until provisions were made for emergency purchases in the local market at the discretion of the Project Director. The latter regula- tion for emergency purchases was not drawn up until August 1942, and in the meantime much damage to public morale was done at the project when acute shortages of food appeared in the early part of that month. Food supplies were received and stored at the project food warehouses.where a large staff of food v/arehouse workers including storekeepers, butchers, bread men, staples men, milk men, and so on, operated under the supervision of the Mess Management Section in. rationing the amount of all foods to be distributed to each mess hall.

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