Cheryl Elston - Care packages

Running time
2 min 11 sec
Department of Veterans' Affairs


Aw , look, the cooks, army cooks, military cooks are amazing. What they get and what they produce never ceases to amaze me. We used to have to go over, and the UN sourced the food, and they probably didn't go to the most lucrative or nicest producers.

So you would see the food as it was being unpacked, and there'd be mouldy fruit, or the meat didn't look the greatest. So, thankfully, my parents sent a lot of care boxes, and in those care boxes were, new at the time, pastas in a packet, and baked beans, and things like that, so I supplemented my meals. But look, the food that we got, they were hot, you didn't have to wash it, didn't have to cook it, so it was always good.

We got plenty of bread and fresh food, but a lot of it was hot. And, obviously, we were in a hot country. It was very humid and very hot, so you didn't always feel like eating those hot meals, and so we didn't have a lot of fresh salad stuff, etc., so it was a lot of just cooked produce. Didn't starve, so we were okay. Initially, it took a while. I think it was about a month before our first delivery came.

But after that, my mum and dad, and friends and family from back home, my grandparents, so you'd probably get something at least once a week. And that'd be a couple of letters or maybe a care package box. Yeah, I remember once, my grandmother packed Anzac cookies wrapped up in foil, and they went within about two seconds. But, magazines and lollies, and chocolate biscuits, which never looked like chocolate biscuits by the time they got to us. Yeah, so it was pretty regular. It was pretty good.

Was this page helpful?