Mobile Kitchens for National Fire Service
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A COMPLETE mobile kitoben, with full equipment for preparing and serving meals for 250 persons at a time, has 'recently been presented to the Wandsworth section of the National Fire Service by the Canadian Red Cross Society. It is the first of a fleet of nearly 100 similar vehicles which will be stationed in the principal towns and cities throughout the country. • When this fleet was first planned it was . intended that the mobile kitchens should be used to feed the homeless victims of enemy air raids, but the reduction in the number. of visits by the Luftwaffe permit them to be used for serving meals to firemen at small auxiliary stations not equipped with proper kitchen arrangements. • The vehicle consists of a Fordson Thames 1431-in. wheelbase, 4-6-ton chassis, fitted with V8 engine, and a specially designed body, built by Strachans (Successors), Acton, Ltd. The equipment includes a .large coalfired range and a sink for washing-up purposes, both of which extend the full width of the body, as well as a 50-gallon water tank and a 30-gallon soup copper...The mobile kitchen also carries its own coal bins, which are fitted at the rear of the vehicle, there being three capacious receptacles. A sliding hatch permits coal supplies to be taken from the hinS from inside the vehicle.
The wide experience of the Ford Motor Co., Ltd., in connection with the design and construction of large fleets of mobile canteens for the Y.?v1.C.A„ Salvation Army, Emergency Food Vans Trust, etc., as well as the Home Office, the L.C.C. and other authorities, has resulted in these mobile kitchens embodying every possible device that makes for the speedy preparation and serving of meals. "
Doors for service purposes are fitted
to .both the near and off sides, and special collapsible double-deck counters are provided; these allow the whole crew to help in the service.work when the kitchen reaches the various ports of call. The vehicle is equipped with awnings 5 ft. wide, with side and end walls, and thus, with the aid of a good electric-light installation, the preparation and serving of meals can continue in spite of the black-out.
• One of the major advantages of this type of mobile kitchen is that its excellent design permits the food to be.served piping hot and the work of, preparing further, supplies to be con-, tinned while deliveries are being made. at the various fire stations and depots. .