New Mess meets the needs of the Junior Ranks at Honington

The Junior Ranks' Mess, delivered on time and on budget by Defence Estates (DE), opened its doors for breakfast on 8 March. The new facility, which will be known as Meiktila Mess, has a large dining hall split into two with each area able to seat 250 people at a time. It includes adaptations providing disabled access facilities for personnel undergoing treatment at the Regional Rehabilitation Unit on the Station.

DE Project Manager Robin Dawson said:

"This new facility improves the living conditions and welfare for the many Junior Ranks at RAF Honington. It is the first of several Mess projects in construction in this region as Defence Estates continues to deliver suitable solutions to Defence needs.

"Our contractor Mansells began construction work in earnest in October 2008 once we had completed an archaeological dig to meet local planning requirements. Building work was completed on schedule in February 2010."

DE then handed the building over to Squadron Leader Marc Colpus (Officer Commanding Catering Squadron) on 4 March 2010. The Junior Ranks' Mess team at RAF Honington, supervised by Warrant Officer Darran Swales (WO Catering Squadron) spent the next four days moving in the furniture, cutlery, crockery, cooking utensils and, most importantly, the food whilst still providing a full meal service in the old Junior Ranks' Mess.

Squadron Leader Colpus said:

"The ultimate customers of this new facility, the Junior Ranks, have been mightily impressed by the improvement in their dining experience over the three meals during the day; the initial feed back has been positively glowing. We have had some initial and inevitable teething issues, but the end customer has not noticed."

The new mess replaces a building originally built in 1936 during the lead up to the Second World War which had been used by generations of RAF personnel and, during the war years, the United States Army Air Force. Despite refurbishment of the building in August 1999 and partial refurbishment of the kitchen in August 2003, the old Mess remained drastically below scale within the dining room, and below size with outdated equipment in the kitchens.

Senior Aircraftsman (SAC) Craig Shade of 27 Squadron RAF Regiment said:

"The old mess was too small, this new building is much better. It's cleaner, more hygienic and there's much more room. The food is still excellent and there's no problems with queuing as the serveries are well designed and get us through quickly."

The new building equipped to support the most up to date catering techniques and meets all modern requirements with regard to Health and Safety and Environmental legislation. For example, it has a food waste system to meet the European Landfill Directive with a MicroENVAC Vacuum that allows staff to clear food waste off plates into units where it is processed and sucked into a central 5,000 litre tank. This integrated building-wide food waste disposal system avoids polluting the local water supply and removes the need to land fill the waste.

The kitchen in the new Mess has walk-in fridges and freezers, and separate, purpose-built food preparation areas for packed meals, raw meats, vegetables and pastries. A carousel tray unit takes the dirty cutlery and crockery to the dishwashing facility and the catering staff also have better storage facilities for personal kit and equipment.

Chef, Corporal Paul Davies said:

"The quality of food that we deliver to our customers is still as high as we can make it. This new Junior Ranks Mess provides us chefs with excellent state-of-the-art facilities and just makes it that much easier to produce the goods."

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