What it takes to feed almost 3,000 athletes coming to Prince George

The BC Summer Games will see more than 2,800 athletes flood into Prince George July 21 to 24 to participate in about 30 different sports.

Athletes are sleeping in 270 classrooms throughout Prince George so they have a roof over their heads but what about keeping all those bellies full?

Who’s going to feed them?

Head Chef Erik Vliegenthart that’s who. And about 50 other chefs and another 450 volunteers who will help make food service run smoothly so those young athletes will get fueled up quickly so they can do their very best in their sport during the Games.

Sit-down breakfast and dinner will be served at the College of New Caledonia (CNC) where facilities are perfect for this high-volume cooking to take place, Vliegenthart said. On-the-fly box lunches, including sandwiches, will be provided for onsite consumption by athletes at sport facilities throughout the city.

What’s it going to look like to feed all those hungry athletes?

Vliegenthart picked dinner before the opening ceremonies Thursday night (July 21) as an example of the sheer volume of what it takes to feed almost 3,000 people.

“We are having a barbecue at CNC before the opening ceremonies,” Vliegenthart said. “This meal is going to be really quick.”

It's going to take at least:

3,000 hamburger buns

800 lbs of ground beef

600 lbs of cheese

150 lbs of tomatoes

100 lbs of lettuce

20 litres each of ketchup and mustard and mayo

There’s also going to be close to 1,000 lbs each of potato salad and macaroni salad and a quick dessert to really give the athletes the carb boost they’ll need to start off their BC Summer Games experience.

So what’s missing right now?

Volunteers!

Food service only has about 15 per cent of who they need to help and the call out is for those who would like to be part of the process of feeding the athletes in any way.

“You don’t have to be a cook,” Vliegenthart said. But they need about 50 of those, too.

So many people are needed to do the bussing of the tables, dish washing, setting up chairs and tables, marshalling the kids in and out of CNC and all the rest of it that comes with feeding so many people as quickly as possible.

The sandwich assembly is its own thing. Not only are people who make the sandwiches required, but people are needed to wrap up the sandwiches and others can cart them to the fridge and then still others can load them up and drive them to the sports venues.

“About 90 per cent of our volunteers aren’t actually doing any cooking,” Vliegenthart said. “They might be dealing with food, scooping out some potato salad and putting it on a plate - so you don’t really need a whole lot of cooking experience to do that.”

Just some willingness to help out is required.

The time commitment can be as little as one shift of four hours over those four days during the Games.

“Or people can go much longer than that,” Vliegenthart said. “But we’d be happy with people who come to do one service line for one dinner – cool! Perfect! That’s awesome. We appreciate all volunteers.”

Visit https://bcgames.net/princeg2022sm/VolunteerModule/register.aspx and scroll down to click on food services.