What is Mess Duty?In the U.S. military, during meal times, people volunteer to work temporarily, like one shift, helping with the handling, serving and all related to safety and well served food This helping, when done following certain rules, is known as mess duty. Mothers of military personel love it.
Mess duty, includes any chores in the kitchen or mess at someones elses kitchen or field kitchen, in an installation or in the field.
Includes but not limited - for a long shot - to food preparation, maybe not cooking at all, or the more obvious help serve, pick up, dish washing and pot scrubbing, sweeping and mopping floors, wiping tables, serving food on the line, or anything else assigned to the shift.
Etymology
The U.S. military sometimes uses the word "police" as a verb to mean "to clean" or "to restore to order". For example, after a company picnic on a U.S. Marine Corps base, a group of Marines might be assigned to police, or clean up, the picnic grounds. Its origins in this usage probably came from the French sense of maintaining public order. Kitchen police then may mean to restore the kitchen to order, or clean up the kitchen.