How West Point Makes Over 13,000 Meals A Day For Army Cadets | Boot Camp | Insider Business

Every day at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, a staff of over 200 people cooks and serves over 13,000 meals for the 4,400 Army cadets attending the school.

The cadets eat in historic Washington Hall, named after George Washington. Of the three meals served each day, lunch is the most complex. Students only have 25 minutes to enter the mess hall, complete a series of traditions and customs, and then eat their meal before returning to class.

Insider was given rare access to the prestigious dining hall to see how the staff prepares nutritious meals for the next generation of Army leadership.

Editor's note: An earlier version of the video featured a soundbite from a West Point dietician that said that the cadets are provided with 1,200 to 1,500 calories per day from the mess hall. The cadets are provided 1,200 to 1,500 calories per meal.

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How West Point Makes Over 13,000 Meals A Day For Army Cadets | Boot Camp | Insider Business

[chrisdongwon]

I'm not necessarily shocked by the volume of the food here but the notion of feeding 4000 people in 25 minutes. That's impressive.

[MattTee]

"Etiquette is super important in the military." *cadet hurls parmesan cheese across table*

[martybaIIer]

The plebs announcing lunch in that goofy ahh cadence is some of the funniest stuff ever

[TheMinimalSociety]

Hats off to all of the service workers who make this happen! You’re heroes.

[qdsrftx]

As a USMA graduate, it was awesome finally seeing the mess hall behind the scenes. When you are actually eating there, everything is so fast that you fail to realize the magnitude of what’s going on behind the scenes. The mess hall workers were amazing people!

[gregalfred]

I graduated USMA in 1996 and NEVER saw this before. I always appreciated the mess hall workers but never really thought about the coordination and effort it took to feed us all at the same time. Guess I was too busy as a plebe trying to make sure the upperclass had the right drinks. Twenty-seven years later, I'm still impressed and sorry I took all this for granted.

[PocketHealz]

I live right next to West Point my entire life and I can say this: the mess hall is absolutely MASSIVE. I’ve also eaten in the hall, the hall is AMAZING and so is everything else inside of the base

[daveinmilwaukee]

The food looks very appetizing. Kudos and thanks to the hardworking staff who produce all these meals, and to all the wonderful cadets who've chosen a career of service to our country. I'm glad to see that they eat well - they deserve t!

[chrisholzhauer]

Respect and kudos to all those working behind the scenes. People often do not give credit where it's due.

[KarlRock]

Impressive. It looks like the cadets eat well. I would’ve loved to see some more of the different meals they eat during the week. Thanks 🙏

[jxmbusab]

I graduated in the '80s and am suddenly overcome with remorse. During the week before the Army-Navy game, it was something of a tradition for plebes to sneak out of the barracks at night to perform various spirit missions. One that I and a few of my classmates pulled was to sneak into Washington Hall and abscond with enough dinner plates to spell out "BEAT NAVY" in Central Area. It never occurred to me just how much work I added to the day of the people working so hard to feed us.

[angiebirdwell]

I love this!
The heroes behind the heroes.
They take great pride in feeding these young men and women.

[CaseNumber]

I really wish more respect for food makers was out there in society. My Japanese wife told me stories that in elementary and middle school she and other students served each other food like this mess hall. To another extent, there is a rotation of all student who do the cleaning around campus from classrooms to trash pickup. It is designed to have some self reliance and respect for the work and job. Even as a full adult over a decade out of college I have met many people who havent cooked and cleaned for themselves in years and many of them are awful toward servers, chefs, and custodians.

[blackdonaldtrump]

Used to work in Washington hall. It’s absolutely amazing to see all those cadets in one place at the same time

[Nooticus]

Honestly it seems impressive until I realise that at my secondary school about 1, 300 students were fed for lunch (hardly any food was from packets) and there were only around 8-10 cooks in the kitchen.

Granted, the food definitely wasn’t brilliant whatsoever, but let me tell you, those cooks were the hardest working staff in the entire school. By far.

Head Chef Helen from Poland, I still have all the respect in the world for you for doing that insanely intense job day in and day out, with basically 0 days ill, for the entirety of the 7 years I was at that school.

[mrsmukk]

Hearing the music with the young student cadets falling into formation gives me goosebumps...there are few things I respect more than the military...thank you for your service and God bless you all🫡

[kathleenmiller]

I work in a small, but busy bakery & feel overwhelmed. Hats off to these folks in their kitchen roles 👏 I could not imagine this feat.

[annebelgard]

I was stationed at West Point for a few years during my Army nursing career and had several meals in the Cadet hall especially at Thanksgiving. The food was better than most restaurants and plentiful!

[thedon]

"Twenty two thousand meatballs, that they prepared early this morning" while showing the most frozen grey perfectly shaped meatballs I've ever seen lmao

[xhalgr]

I think food service should be a mandatory course for everyone. Imagine how much nicer people would be to fast food employees if they spent a year in their shoes.