Fort George G. Meade: The First 100 Years

Cooks and Bakers School
After the three-month long Spanish-American War,
soldiers returned to the states to deplorable living
conditions in hastily organized camps. Thirteen times
the number of soldiers killed in action during the
conflict, died from diseases like typhoid, dysentery and
yellow fever in the crowded and inadequate conditions
of the camps. An investigation into those responsible
for the deadly conditions conducted by the 1898 Dodge
Commission, revealed inadequate housing, deplorable
food and insufficient medical care.
The findings led the Army to realize they had a problem
with feeding the troops. Part of the reforms instituted
was the creation of Army food service schools. Camp
Meade’s Cooks and Bakers School was established in
1919 and trained officers and enlisted men to cook, bake
and produce rations.
During WWI the bakery supplied bread for the entire
post, (approximately 20,000 people including families of
married men), and could produce up to 700 one-pound
loaves every hour, as many as 12,000 loaves a day.
During the 1930s, approximately 20 bakers and 75
cooks graduated from the school every year. At the time,
the course was four months long for enlisted personnel.
By WWII, however, the course had been shortened to
eight weeks.
BETWEEN THE WARS
The school at Camp Meade was one of the oldest service
schools in the Army and was in operation longer than any
other Army food service facility when it closed in 1955.
The school’s curriculum included courses in cooking,
baking and mess management, and specialized courses in
brewing coffee, meat cutting and pastry baking. Soldiers
learned everything from proper nutrition, sanitation and
food-borne illnesses to menu planning and accounting.
The best cooks and bakers left the school to instruct
Soldiers at other food service schools and to inspect mess
halls across the country.
The school moved in 1939 to the current Max J. Beilke
Human Resources Center at 2234 Huber Road. The
facility also contained barracks for the students.
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(Top left) The Cooks and Bakers School was established to
train those who prepared food. Unsanitary conditions and
poor preparation resulted in disease, which dibilitated troops
during the Spanish-American War.
(Top right) Bakers cooked as many as 12,000 loaves of bread
a day.
(Lower Left) A mobile kitchen helped ensure food preparation
went where the troops were. The mobile kitchens where tested
on Camp Meade.
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