Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego opened a new dining facility Wednesday that can prepare up to 20,000 meals a day. At more than 100,000 square feet, it is the largest mess hall in the U.S. Department of Defense. The facility is also intended to help feed people displaced by disasters.
The new hall replaces Building 569, the depot's dining quarters for decades, with a structure roughly one-third larger. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the facility includes walk-in ovens, 80-gallon kettles and food-processing conveyors. On opening day, the equipment was used to cook 2,200 pieces of catfish for lunch, the paper reported.
Built for Training and Worst-Case Scenarios
The depot primarily trains recruits from west of the Mississippi River. The Union-Tribune reported that the new facility was also designed to accommodate overflow from MCRD Parris Island in South Carolina if problems arise there.
The Union-Tribune reported that the mess hall is intended to help feed people displaced by events such as wildfires. Project contractor Balfour Beatty has described the build as an $84.2 million undertaking designed to support Marine recruits' operational needs for the next 60 years, according to the company's account of the project.
How the county plans for emergency food
San Diego County’s 2022 care-and-shelter annex lists large institutional kitchens affiliated with government agencies—including jails, airports and universities—as possible local sources of prepared food when utilities are functional, according to the San Diego County Operational Area Emergency Operations Plan, Annex G.
Meals for Recruits
Recruits receive three meals a day.
Mealtime Discipline Remains
The building may be new, but mealtime discipline remains: recruits still get 20 minutes to eat and are typically forbidden from chit-chat at the table, according to the Union-Tribune.
