One of the things students ask me about frequently is the food.  How is it?  What do you eat?  What time do you eat?  So I thought today we’d take a look at what it takes to feed an expedition of 126 people for 60 days.

There are 4 meal services on the ship.  5-7 am, 5-7 pm, 11am-1pm and 11pm – 1am.  So, for 8 out of 24 hours of the day, the galley is open and serving meals.  If you take the 126 people on board and multiply that by 3 meals a day, we’re looking at 378 meals a day.  Multiply that by the 60 days of the expedition and we have 22,680 meals being eaten on the JR while at sea. 

If you break down the budget for food (aproximately $90,000) by person per day, they manage to feed us for less than 12.00 a person per day.  That’s equal to…oh 2 or 3 lattes at Starbucks I think. 

Snacks are available 24/7 – things like cereal, cheese, crackers, sandwich meats and peanut butter along with lots of fresh bread and rolls are always set out in the mess hall.

All this amounts to a staggering amount of food that must be brought on board in port, and juggled with precision and accuracy to maintain the freshness and quality of all the food on the ship throughout the entire expedition.  Below is a table that gives you an idea of the amounts of basic foods that are stocked for a single 60 day expedition.