Food is a pretty central theme to life at Rothera. Whether it’s bringing people together through the day, or dividing them over how many sprouts is just too many sprouts.

Food is brought in bulk by the ship. Freshies are brought in by aircraft when possible during the flying season. There is a huge dry store, and several reefer freezers meaning food is never short, but it is sometimes random, and often out of date. 

Meal times are as follows;

Mon – sat 

Smoko 10.30-11 (Sausage or bacon rolls, soup, fresh bread)

Lunch 1-2 (cooked hot meal

Dinner 6-7.30 (another cooked hot meal, and desert)

Sunday 

Brunch 12-1pm (fry up, sweet treats, bread- my favourite meal of the week)

Dinner 6-7pm (often a roast!) 

Outside of meal times, food is not in short supply. The stash of chocolate and crisps at the end of the dining room puts most corner shops to shame. Toast, cereal, left overs all aplenty, and you’re welcome in the kitchen to rustle up a cake or goodies.  Anytime from 10pm- 4am you’re likely to see a squad of late night toast munchers. Occasionally they organise and form a cheese toastie coalition. 

Alongside the SSA (my) job to keep the kitchen and dining room clean, we have GASH.  That’s Gulley And Scullery Hand. Someone is “on gash” each day to help out in the kitchen and dining room and it’s a really nice leveller of everyone serving others. Each Friday everyone down tools for scrub out and is assigned a task for an hour for the communal good. One of the popular jobs is the food move, where human chain transports the food from central stores into the kitchen dry store ready for the week! Whether it’s cleaning toilets or peeling garlic, the idea was good enough for Shackleton’s Antarctic missions!