Exchange History: Snack Wagons Throughout the Years
Throughout the years, snack wagons became part of AAFES lore, living out the motto, “We go where you go,” by delivering food and drinks to troops wherever they were deployed. In fact, in 1917, U.S. Army mobile canteens, called “field kitchens,” began feeding troops located in remote locations.
Today, hundreds of Exchange concessionaire-operated food wagons are serving troops everything from bratwurst to burgers.
Check out this history pictorial of Exchange “food wagons” by clicking on each picture.
FunFact
A surplus U.S. Army wagon became the first ‘food truck’
Today’s food trucks are direct descendants from the chuck wagon, a cowboy’s portable kitchen used on the cattle trails.
In 1866, Charles Goodnight invented the chuck wagon from a surplus U.S. Army wagon with interior shelving and drawers, and plenty of dried beans, coffee, cornmeal, bacon, salt pork, beef, water barrels, and a sling to kindle wood to heat and cook food.
