Lunch on Patrol

Hi Folks,

I hit the streets in a couple of weeks. I'll be kept pretty busy so I don't expect to get any lunch breaks let alone have time to sit down for a bite to eat. (I figure those days a pretty much long gone). I plan on taking a bagged lunch as much as possible. I'll be working 12 hours shifts and (obviously) will not have access to a fridge or microwave.
Any suggestions on what foods are good to pack? I would like to keep things relatively heathly since I won't have time to PT as much.

Many thanks!
Abby

Give it up, Abby. The bag lunch always sounds like a great idea but it never works. For the little amount of time I did do that, I always tried to go with stuff that can be either eaten very fast (those little fruit cups are a good source of nutrition and sugars) or sealed back up quickly (sandwich in a ziploc), but not messy (no extra mustard). Stay away from carbonated drinks.

From what I've been given to understand, this may be a good time to switch to diet as well, because if you spill a sugared drink, you may as well consign yourself to having sticky clothes all night long. And those cheese powder coated snacks (cheetoz, doritos, etc) should be off the menu, too.

I carry a cooler in my trunk that plugs into the 12v system, it will heat or cool.......so the answer is I carry anything I want....the problem is.......when/if I get to eat anything, lol

WTF is a lunch?????

Don't be fooled by FSCF, he is on lunch all shift long. Us real cops rarely get to eat, and when we do it's fast food.

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Originally Posted by Terminator

Don't be fooled by FSCF, he is on lunch all shift long. Us real cops rarely get to eat, and when we do it's fast food.

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+1

I would like to add, that on my dept, each sector goes to lunch at different times. If your on your way to lunch, or at lunch and you get a call, often times another sector car will speak up and take the call for you, so you don't miss lunch. It's a pretty nice system we have set up amongst ourselves.

I eat and I eat well at work. My sergeant is a competetive bbq guy and usually before roll call whatever hes been working on that week is there for us to try. The pizza place in our bar district just sends over to us anything they dont sell(would have been thrown out) so I grab that. And there are plenty of great places in town.

BUT if it is going to be a long night I usually stock up on chocolate powerbars, granola bars, bottled water, pretzels rods, nutrigrains bars. Things that can be at room temperature, little mess and can be palced aside if you get tied up. Then again I can get to my station from anywhere within my jurisdiction within 7 minutes so if im really hungry and want to cook something up I can be there.... yea be jealous I eat best when Im at work:D

edit to add, we really dont have an assigned lunch or even officially recognize it. We can take as many short breaks as we choose. We just put ourselves out on portable or a few other phrases that kind of lets dispatch know "hey gunna be tied up for a minute if you dont mind" still technically available but...not really

Well, the FEDS are always on lunch. I think they plan to plan for lunch. As far as not getting one, you will. Bagged lunches never work. You will find out that when you get home or get up in the morning, afternoon, or evening you will not want to make a lunch let alone do anything. We get denied lunches sometimes in the summer when it is crazy crazy busy, but it's in our contract that we get 1-30 min lunch and I think 1 or 2 15 minute personals an hour. I have never ever taken a personal I have been denied a lunch a few times and then dropped an overtime slip at the end of the tour.

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Originally Posted by fscf3801

WTF is a lunch?????

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UH you actually get a WORK BREAK for 30 minutes from your 8 hour LUNCH DAY:biggrin1:


For me, I depending on manpower can call out for 30 minutes but try not to stay out for all 30. I did Subway tonight, a quick foot long tuna. Yesterday was a regular size Jersey Mikes sub. SOmetimes its a small pizza. We have a few decent places to eat, I try not to eat at WENDY's anymore since I found a weird colored thing in my spicy chicken last year. I think I lost 7-8 pounds also by not snacking.
BUT for your question, find the good places to eat, ask your FTO before you start what is in store lunch break wise. A person needs to eat to kep the energy up for them foot chases...
IF no then take a cooler or big bag and keep the healthy stuff handy.

I am pretty lucky. I eat at home or my parents house almost every shift. I just let my partner know and he takes all the calls. If it is a big call i leave to back him up. We are allowed to take as long as we want for lunch. All they care about is the calls being answered!

i take a small cooler with me everyday, keep it in passenger floorboard a couple of drinks, some assorted nuts and such. eat when i can.

Well, I'm not LEO but I do bring my lunch to work and I eat healthy.
Dont forget the old standby peanut butter and jelly sandwich! Even better is to use multigrain bread and get fresh ground PB at a health food store and the fruit only types of jelly. If you have a cooler you can probably bring along a yogurt too. There's also bananas and apples, and pears. You may can even make your own trail mix with nuts and dried fruit (preferably the lower salt types of nuts).

Oh, if you bring a cooler also think about cut up veggie sticks (zuchinni, carrots, jicama if you have it where you are, etc), and even a little cup of salad dressing/dip. An occasional hard boiled egg too (although they don't smell that good).

Keep some tea bags. Stale tea beats the hell out of plain hot water.

Note the places around town that have hot water dispensers on their coffee makers. Come winter hot water comes in handy in a myriad of ways. I always keep my thermos hot even if I don't use it most days.

Keep some dry non-dairy creamer packs around. They're not lunch, but in a pinch they shut down a growling stomach.

I was thinking more along the lines of what to squirrel for times you're stuck without anything to eat. I find myself out in the middle of nowhere like that too often.

I work for a very busy agency, and we dont get to check out for food on mids (dont ask), but I always make sure I eat during my shift. If there are calls stacking up, then i'll grab a sandwich or somthing rather than sitting down and eating.

I think if there is one important lesson that should be taught in FTO it is to always eat. If you dont eat, you may start feeling unwell and perform at less than 100%, which can turn into a saftey issue.

I always keep a bottle of water and a soft drink handy, and I keep some sunflower seeds handy for those long crime scenes.

I keep a small cooler in the floor board. I have a couple of packs of tuna, a couple of oranges, and bottled water. I also keep MRE's inthe trunk in case we have a crime scene that I will be on for long periods.

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Originally Posted by Lawdog32

I keep a small cooler in the floor board. I have a couple of packs of tuna, a couple of oranges, and bottled water. I also keep MRE's inthe trunk in case we have a crime scene that I will be on for long periods.

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MRE's for crime scenes you're on too long ??? How long you talking,,, like a 30 day stint out in the bush ?!?!!..LOL:D

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Originally Posted by danninator

The pizza place in our bar district just sends over to us anything they dont sell(would have been thrown out) so I grab that.

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Hopefully they are TRULY LEO FRIENDLY, and not spicing it up each time while laughing their azzes off......:o

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Hopefully they are TRULY LEO FRIENDLY, and not spicing it up each time while laughing their azzes off......

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Nah they are our buddies. the pizza is all in front of you anyway. we watch them box it and hand it over. Of course courtesy of our sergeant even though the pizza is free usually a 10-15 dollar tip comes their way.