Emergency Food Vans Doing Good Work
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rr HE well-known building-contracting
concern of John Mowlem and Co., Ltd., has donated the cost of an emergency food van to the Ford Emergency Food Vans Trust. It will form part of the fleet of nearly 450 similar vehicles stationed at key points, so that in the event of further heavy air-raids it will be possible to serve hot meals to the victims immediately the raid is over. The van presented by John Mowlem and Co., Ltd., will be stationed at Hereford.
This fleet of " mercy " vehicles owes its inception to the generous gift of Mr. Henry Ford and his son, Mr. Edsel Ford. A special type of body was designed for the standard Fordson
10-cwt. chassis, which was selected as the most economical type for the job. Arrangements were made for the Ford dealer in each locality to maintain the vans posted to his district free of charge, in readiness for action day or night.
With the reduction in enemy air activity over this country, the calls made on the F.E.V.s to rush food to " blitzed " areas have been limited. Consequently, the Council of Management of the Trust agreed with local authorities in many parts of the country to use the vans for meeting other problems of feeding that had arisen. Thus, they are now being used for transporting hot meals to agricultural workers, dockers, demolition workers and to small factories where proper canteens are not available. Even more important is the use of the vans to carry hot meals to schools and to outlying districts where it is obviously uneconomic to establish communal feeding centres.
In most cases the meals are prepared in a British Restaurant or other type of communal cooking centre and then put into the specially designed containers provided. These maintain the heat of the food for at least 31 hours, and as each van is equipped with four of these containers, sufficient stew or soup to provide 640 meals can be carried on each journey.