MCRD/ERR PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- There are hundreds of communities across the United States that come to depend on nearby military personnel to support various community activities, and Beaufort is no different.
Parris Island is no stranger to helping out the community and, because of this, preparation of the 49th Annual Beaufort Water Festival's Lowcountry Supper went off without a hitch at the Depot's H&SBn. Mess Hall July 22.
Ten water festival volunteers packed up their gear and headed out to the Depot bright and early to get a head start on the meal that served approximately 2,400 hungry festival goers later that evening.
The dinner, a long-standing festival favorite, is a mixture of many traditional flavors, including some that came right from the local waters, and is prepared in enormous quantities. The festive night's menu included 1,400 pounds of shrimp, 1,000 pounds of sausage, and 2,400 ears of corn, all of which were prepared in the Depot's kitchens hours before the first shrimp was dipped in cocktail sauce or the first ear of corn was buttered.
"I don't think there is anywhere out in town that would allow us to prepare a meal like this as easily and as quickly as we have been able to here," said Larry Swigart, who has been chairman of the Lowcountry Supper for the past four years.
"It's large enough to where we are able to get our food ready and not interfere with what the normal workers have to do."
As the H&SBn. employees went on with their normal routine of preparing three full meals a day for hundreds of Marines and recruits, Joseph Winborne, a cook at H&SBn. Mess Hall, could not help but admire the volunteer's hard work.
"It looked like everything ran real smooth for them," said Winborne. "The number of people they prepared all the food for is similar to what we do each day here for the recruits, and I thought they did pretty good with their time. This is a good place for them though, we've got the biggest equipment here, and it's probably the only way they would be able to get something like this accomplished."
Inside the mess hall, which has been used for this task for nearly three decades, several dedicated volunteers dumped hundreds of shrimp at a time into steaming hot vats where they would be boiled and seasoned. After the shrimps were thoroughly cooked, they were seasoned again and immediately put on ice. They were then dumped into huge steel cauldrons where they would stay at a cool 40 degrees until they were ready to be served at one of the biggest events of the festival.
"It draws a crowd for a number of reasons," said John Gentry, festival sports coordinator. "Besides the fact that it's a bargain, it gives people something to do as a family. For $10, they get to enjoy a good meal together and see a concert."
Also on the evening's menu was 250 pounds of coleslaw, 2,400 dinner roles, 90 watermelons, and 250 gallons of sweet tea, but the night would have been hard to pull off without one thing.
"Without the help of the Marine Corps and their facility, we would have been extremely hard pressed to make the dinner happen ... it might not have happened at all," said Swigart.
Anyone unable to make it to this year's Lowcountry Supper need not worry, because this festival favorite is sure to return next year.