HOW I HELPED TO FEED TOMMY.
All About the Work and Pay of the Girl Who Joins under the Navy and Army Canteen Board.
HERE I am home again after a year's war work. I have just got my seven days’ leave. I have had—oh, such an interesting time! I am so glad I joined up under the Navy and Army Canteen Board and am one of those helping to feed Tommy. Of course, I know my other girl friends in different corps are doing splendid work, but I always think “comparisons are odious,” and as long as we are engaged on war work that is the chief point. We are not all stouthearted enough for hospital work, or physically fit for the land; but my work is all right for a girl who has just ordinary health and strength, and there is no sad side to it.
We all like wearing uniform. It is so nice not to have to trouble about thinking “What shall I wear?” Indoors we wear khaki overalls and little “Sister Dora” caps. For outdoors we wear a tunic or coat of khaki, buttoned up at the throat like the soldier’s tunic. I go on duty at 7.30 a.m., and I go off at 9.30 p.m., and there is no time wasted changing frocks at all.
During the afternoon I get two hours’ leave, and once a week I get a half day off, and I can assure you I manage to have a fine time then.
THE UNIFORM IS FREE.
NOW I am sure you want to hear just what my work is. I suppose it is because I am a woman that I start by telling you about mv frock—I beg its pardon, I mean my uniform—and then about my holidays. Well, I am cooking. This Board only started just over a year ago. Now we are 8,000 workers, all women, and we have about 2,000 canteens. We are for home service only, and wo do not have to bind ourselves for any special period of time. If you are accepted as a worker by the Canteen Board, you have your uniform given you, and then, according to what work you are going to do, you are either sent to a school to train or else you go direct to your job. The cooks and manageresses are trained, but the waitresses are untrained. The Board will only take women who have had experience as the two former. Fortunately for me, I have had a good bit of experience in cooking. Mother always said every woman should know how to. I spent a month (that is the training period) at one of the two schools in London. There are several in the provinces as well. Here we learnt, first, all about canteen cooking. It means often working on a large scale, and frequently at great speed, for at busy times it just seems as if the whole British Army came tumbling into the canteen all at once, and, of course, everyone wanted to be served immediately. Sometimes I wish some of the girls in the London tea-rooms could see how we serve our customers. I always have coffee ready and plenty of hot water for tea.
Ours is cooking of light refreshments only. Our light suppers are our strong point. Thank goodness we dispense unrationed food only, so we have no brain trouble over whole or half coupons. We have to be very economical, and no waste is allowed. Woe betide you if an inspector came along and found waste in your canteen.
We cooks sometimes turn out new recipes—war-time economy ones. It is quite wonderful what one can do with even the present-day food if trouble is taken.
PAY IS ACCORDING TO THE WORK.
WE live either in hostels or in quarters behind the canteen. Where I have been for some months we are at the canteen. I cook for the other girls, and I get plenty of teasing over my “war recipes.” Once a new recipe fell flat, and the result was we were rather supperless that night and had to content ourselves with bread; and, of course, it was all over the camp next day, and now they all call me “the chef.” I just love my work, and I like to think out a nice, new little supper dish for the men. I have a specially warm spot in my heart for the men just called up, and who have only just left their comfortable homes and perhaps a pretty little wife and children. It must take some time for them to really get used to their new life. The girls who wait tell me they like their work so much, but I always think mine is more important. The manageress keeps all the accounts, and is responsible for the “housekeeping” for our large family. It is necessary in such a big undertaking to have “red tape,” but it is not drawn too tightly, and we all like the life and the work very much.
Our pay is quite good. We none of us wish for a fancy wage. Our board and lodging is provided, and our pay is according to the work we do. No girl is taken under eighteen. There is no other age limit except for the manageresses; they are not taken over forty-five. A reduction is, of course, made from our pay to cover our keep, as is the rule with all forms of war work.
DO YOU WANT TO HELP?
THE Navy and Army Canteen Board have quite a large welfare side, so the comfort and care of the workers is well looked after. They are suitably housed, well fed, and there is no side of their welfare that is neglected; but them is no undue restraint. No father or mother need fear their girls joining up, although the work is situated in our camps all over the country.
I am in a camp “somewhere in England” just a few miles from one of our delightful old cathedral towns.
If you want to come and work for Tommy, too, send in your name to the
Navy and Army Canteen Board,
Imperial Court, Knightsbridge,
or go to your nearest Employment Bureau.
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