伙食

• Pinyin: huǒ shí
• Hanzi breakdown: 伙 = 人 + 火 (person + fire, a group sharing a fire and cooking together, hence companions or a team); 食 = 人 + 良 (person + good/pleasing, the act of eating, food)

Meaning

Food and meals provided in a communal setting such as a canteen, army mess, school cafeteria, or workplace dining hall. Refers to the quality and supply of institutional food.

伙食 specifically refers to communal dining arrangements, not individual meals. It is commonly used in contexts such as 军队伙食 (army rations/mess), 学校伙食 (school canteen food), 工地伙食 (construction site meals), 伙食费 (food allowance/catering budget). The term carries connotations of collective eating and institutional provisioning, often discussed in terms of quality: 伙食好/差 (the food is good/poor), 改善伙食 (improve the catering standards).

Examples

1. 部队驻扎期间，后勤保障部门竭尽全力改善士兵的伙食条件，力求在有限的物资供给下为官兵提供营养均衡、口感良好的日常餐食。 While the troops were stationed there, the logistics unit did everything it could to improve the soldiers’ meals, aiming to provide balanced, good-tasting daily food despite limited supplies.
2. 随着学校对学生营养健康问题的日益重视，食堂引入了专业营养师参与菜单设计，学生们普遍反映伙食质量有了显著提升。 As the school has placed growing emphasis on students’ nutrition and health, the cafeteria brought in professional dietitians to help design the menu, and students generally report a noticeable improvement in the food.
3. 建筑工地上的工人们在结束了一天繁重的劳动之后，围坐在简陋的餐桌旁，一边大口吃着热气腾腾的伙食，一边轻松地聊起了家乡的往事。 After a day of exhausting labor, the workers at the construction site sat around a simple table, eating steaming hot cafeteria food and casually chatting about stories from back home.

Usage Guide

Context: military, school, work, daily life, catering

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 部队改革强调伙食标准化，集中采购和统一配餐并行，以降低成本并保证士兵营养。(The military reform emphasizes standardized meals, with centralized purchasing and unified meal service running in parallel to cut costs and ensure soldiers' nutrition.)
• 工厂员工对食堂伙食投诉不断，管理层决定重审供餐合同，并做满意度调查找出问题。(Employees kept complaining about the food in the factory cafeteria, so management decided to review the catering contract and conduct a satisfaction survey to find the problem.)

Don't Say

• 伙食 for a single personal meal — use 饭菜 or 餐食 for an individual's food or a specific meal; 伙食 specifically implies a communal or institutional dining context

Origin & History

伙 (group/partner, sharing a fire together) + 食 (food/eating) — 伙 originally meant a group of people sharing a cooking fire; 食 is the standard character for eating/food; together they denote communal eating arrangements

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Working class and institutions