Food Service at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne Australia
Athletes attend the Commonwealth Games from 72 countries, coming from a range of cultures and religions. It is very challenging to provide food to the thousands of individuals at the athlete's village. The food needs to cater to a diversity of sports, cultures, ages and special dietary needs, and at the same time be appealing and provided in a healthy and safe manner.
Here is some information about the Commonwealth Games village and food menu for Melbourne in 2006. See more about Commonwealth Games nutrition.
About the Village and Food Hall
The Commonwealth Games Village was located in Parkville on 27 hectares, situated on the site of the Former Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital. For the duration of the Games, it was home to over 4,500 athletes and 1,500 team officials.
The main dining hall at the Games Village was able to seat 1800 athletes at any one time, and cater to 20,000 meals per day, over 25 days.
The catering facilities for the Games Village were provided by PKL Group Ltd. The kitchens were 1,250m2 and the dining hall 5,000m2, allowing seating for up to 2,000 people at any one time. The official village caterer was Delware North.
Melbourne Yarra River and cityscape in 2006The Queen's Visit
As part of the Queen's official duties during her visit to Melbourne, she visited the athlete village food hall to dine with 200 athletes and officials from the Commonwealth teams. The menu was believed to consist of mushroom tart followed by eye fillet and cheese.
Nutrition Services
In addition to the large range of food provided, nutrition services were also provided by qualified sports dietitians (Pelly et al, 2006). These services included sports nutrition fact sheets, nutrition information at the point of food service, dietetic consultations, and a special request service to provide therapeutic dietary products.
Related Research
- Pelly FE. Nutrition support for elite athletes: lessons learnt from the 2006 Commonwealth Games. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2010;44:i45.
- Pelly, Fiona & Karen, Inge & Tanya, King & Helen, Connor. (2006). Provision of a nutrition support service at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. Proceedings of the 2nd Australian Association for Exercise and Sports Science Conference; (Sydney, Australia, 28-Sep-2006 to 1-Oct-2006);
Related Pages
- See more about Commonwealth Games nutrition.
- Olympic Village nutrition, includes links to info about the menu at Olympic Games events.
- Nutrition at the Olympics — athlete diets throughout the ages.
- About the Commonwealth Games
- Food Safety Information
- Nutrition for Athletes at Major Events
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