Rouge: Pictured in Its Prime

35. Food Services

35 FOOD SERVICES The tens of thousands of employees at the Rouge Plant largely took care of their own food requirements while at work. Most brought lunches from home. A considerable number purchased lunches from the food carts that arrived at mid-shift at numerous locations and sold simple lunch essentials. Very few, other than top executives, would venture out of the plant, considering the short twenty- to thirty-minute lunch periods allotted. Production workers customarily ate their lunches relaxing by their machines. Salaried laboratory and office workers usually ate at their benches or desks. As new manufacturing buildings were erected in the late 1930s, lunch rooms with tables and chairs were provided for hourly workers to eat the food they brought from home. By the 1940s, Ford Motor Company was operating cafeterias to accommodate both hourly and salaried workers. For executives, plush private dining rooms ranked A, B, and C were provided, with A being most exclusive. Costs of food were minimal at the various cafeterias and dining rooms. The food was better than at most restaurants and was sold at little or no profit to the company. A typical Rouge cafeteria meal in the 1940s would cost about 70 cents, paid in cash. Private dining-room meals, considerably more expensive , were charged to an executive’s account with the company and deducted monthly from his pay. 221 Every day, long trains of food trucks are pulled into the Rouge through Gate 4 and other plant gates. This photo was taken on a chilly March 17, 1931. (833.55987) 223 Production workers waste no time grabbing their lunches after standing in line for a considerable portion of their allotted twenty-minute lunch period. With food in hand, they return to their work stations to eat, often sitting on the floor beside their machines. In the photo, the man to the far right has a cup of soup in his hand, and the second man has a pint of milk. (833.71202-M) Opposite, top: A lunch wagon open for business on December 15, 1938. For each wagon, two workers are assigned to open the wagon, display the goods, dish out the soup, and collect the money. Soup is in the large can to the left. Cardboard soup cups are in the boxes at the far left. (833.71202-C) Opposite, bottom: At the top of the wagon, several “Factory Lunch” boxes are marked “Ham.” From the left are sandwiches, apples, oranges, and a variety of 5-cent candy bars. On the floor are crates of milk at the left and crates of coffee at the right. Although it tastes vile, more coffee is sold than milk. (833.71202-A) 224 A typical lunch as carried in the standard workman’s lunch bucket and eaten in the hourly workers’ lunch room. (833.77837) Opposite, top: The employee cafeteria counter on an upper floor of the Rouge administration building before mealtime on June 3, 1932. At the far end of the line are the coffee urns and cashier’s station. This cafeteria was in operation before cafeterias were provided in Rouge manufacturing buildings. (833.56995-6) Opposite, bottom:The cafeteria dining room in the Rouge administration building. Approximately a half-mile from the Rouge manufacturing area, these facilities are provided almost exclusively for the office workers who work in the administration building. (833.56995-7) Above: In the new tool-and-die building on December 23, 1938, it appears the majority of workers have brought their lunches to work from home, leaving their lunch buckets above their coats in the coat room during working hours. Lunch buckets holding a drink in a thermos bottle are standard at this time. At lunchtime, workers can take their lunches to a nearby lunch room and eat at tables. Lunch wagons continue to be popular, however, since not all buildings have lunch rooms. (833.69463-94) ...