Imagine preparing and serving 25,000 meals in seven days. That's the task ahead for Chris Coombs, Culinary Arts instructor at Steinbach Regional Secondary School, as he prepares for the Power Smart Manitoba Summer Games.Coombs says it's the largest project he has ever taken on. He says the menus must be tailored towards athletes who are focused on peak performances.

Chris Coombs"We planned the menus awhile back and they were approved by Sports Manitoba and now it's a matter of ordering. That's what I'm having the biggest problem with right now; the quantities of food to be ordered and how much are these kids going to eat."

Coombs says athletes require good carbs and protein and the meals are being set up accordingly.

"We have pasta on the menu, both lunch and dinner, and then at lunch time we have sandwiches and a salad bar. In the evening the menu will change every night. One night we have farmer sausage perogies, another night we have pork loin, another night we have chicken and pulled pork and stuff like that."

Trish Enns is co-chair of the games. She says the food budget is enormous.

"Our food budget is actually $100,000 so it's one of the bigger components. Another major component is milk. We anticipate we're going to go through 20,000 pints of chocolate and white milk."

Coombs says his SRSS colleague Kerri Deller will work alongside him and he has also hired several students to help with the food preparation. In addition, there will be 12 volunteers per shift assisting in the kitchen and another eight volunteers per shift doing the serving and supervising of the cafeteria at SRSS. The games begin August 7th.

Coombs says the daily food preparation at SRSS during the school year pales in comparison to the task ahead for the games.

"Not even in the same league. The numbers are like comparing the attendance at a Goldeyes' game to a Blue Jays' game. There's no comparison to the numbers and the volume of food."