They Eat Like Animals!

July 23, 2026

By Gretchen Westdal Centers

Gleaming countertops. Kitchen prep tools neatly contained. Menus outlining the various meals to be prepared are posted for quick reference. It’s a scene from any culinary environment, but this one has some extremely unique menu items. The daily specials include raw meat, assorted insects and small rodents. Welcome to the Commissary at the Blank Park Zoo. 

A commissary team is made up of devoted zoo staff who oversee the preparation, assembly and distribution of meals to the 1,484 animals — that’s 104 different species — that call the zoo home. This is no small task, especially with the variety of dietary needs. 

Time To Eat

Feeding nearly 1,500 animals is a substantial undertaking. And ensuring those meals are specifically tailored to each animal’s dietary needs adds another element to the commissary team’s already full plate. 

A commissary keeper’s day starts with prepping the kitchen for a full morning of making around 130 diets that are distributed to the animals. The team also fulfills orders to keep the animal care team stocked with their supplies. This includes ordering bags of grain, new brooms, bottles of bleach and other necessities. 

The other team members will go to the Quarantine building to care for the new animals that arrive at the zoo. Nearly every animal that comes to the zoo requires a 30-day quarantine to ensure they are healthy and won’t transmit any illnesses to the current animal population. 

“We feel lucky to be the first ones to meet and care for the new zoo residents and help them transition from their old facility to their new home,” relishes Jordan Gibson, commissary and quarantine supervisor at Blank Park Zoo. 

In preparing the meals, the team goes through pounds of fresh greens, fruits and vegetables, including corn, apples, berries, sweet potatoes, carrots and squash, just to name a few. Some animals get hard-boiled eggs. Pinnipeds and penguins enjoy a diet of fish. And the big cats and birds of prey go through a lot of beef products, including chunk meat, liver, heart and even bones. 

“We go through roughly 20,000 pounds of fish, 14,000 pounds of meat and estimate that we go through around 100,000 pounds of produce each year,” illustrates Gibson. “We use a wide variety of fresh produce, both locally sourced and even from our own garden, which we have onsite!”

That sustainability extends to other areas. Gibson goes on to say that when purchasing food items, the team is always looking for trusted companies that source sustainably. 

“The majority of our produce is from Loffredo and Fareway, which are both known for sourcing quality products locally within Iowa and the Midwest,” says Gibson. “During the summer months, we grow corn, squash, tomatoes and cucumbers in our garden, and our apple trees produce so much that last year we ended up donating crates of apples since we couldn’t use them all. We also have a large compost pile on-site that we use for any food scraps that are not edible or can’t be fed out to the animals, which then gets used to support our beautiful zoo gardens.”

It is this whole focus on the animals, their well-being, and a broader focus on conservation and preservation that keeps the commissary team busy seven days a week. They work in tandem with the veterinary staff and animal care teams to keep everything running as a happy ecosystem.

A Meaningful Meal Plan

“Just like in humans, nutrition plays such a huge role in overall animal wellness. The quality is critical to their overall well-being throughout their life,” explains Dr. Drew Gall, DVM, senior veterinarian at the Blank Park Zoo. “We do a lot of diet analysis, specifically looking at their GI tract and how it functions, what’s the microbiome and how does that transition to an appropriate, balanced diet.”

Dr. Gall, who graduated from Iowa State University and has been with the zoo for a decade, goes on to explain how the commissary team’s work is a critical component of animal welfare, and that the nutrition informs much of the zoo’s veterinary team’s work. 

Take the Eastern Black Rhinos that live at the zoo. They are a critically endangered species with fewer than 1,000 left in the wild and captive populations. Ensuring they have the right diet is essential to their survival and future. Eastern Black Rhinos live on a diet of leafy plants, twigs, legumes, fruit and grass. Part of that diet at the zoo incorporates hay. 

“One of the things Black rhinos are extremely well known for, at least on the medical side, is they have iron overload disorder,” explains Dr. Gall. “If they consume too much iron in their diet, it can affect how their liver functions, and inadvertently cause liver damage. We must be extremely tedious on evaluating their diets for levels of iron. We have been trying to find this upcoming year’s hay allotment with low iron.”

Data-Informed Decision-Making

Dr. Gall and his team can make these adjustments due to the wealth of data and knowledge sharing that happens between zoos in the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA). Similar to associations within agriculture and animal husbandry, the AZA works to support zoos and their staff so animal welfare is championed. 

Through the AZA, Blank Park Zoo was able to work with Disney’s Animal Kingdom on a three-year study to examine the rhino’s diet and gain crucial insights into how they can best support the species through nutrition. Now they know that the rhinos need regular monitoring through blood and stool samples to ensure their iron levels are in check. 

“A lot of what we do focuses on what we know about the animal’s diets,” Dr. Gall clarifies. 

He goes on to explain how this relatively new wealth of data informs much of the care plans created for the animals. It is a welcome development especially as so much of their work is in conservation and the breeding programs.

Protecting The Herd

2026 marks the zoo’s 60th anniversary and the celebrations are felt throughout the 49 acres the zoo occupies on the south side of Des Moines. Throughout the years, there have been numerous advancements in animal welfare, conservation practices, educational opportunities and — one of the most critical — biosecurity.  Like the practices seen on a farm, biosecurity is one of the most important aspects of the zoo’s continued advancements. 

“Biosecurity always starts with the individual animal,” Dr. Gall explains. “We have really high standards in every aspect around the zoo. Biosecurity heightens every level of decision-making.”

This is especially important when the zoo gets a new animal. Species are often transferred between accredited AZA institutions. 

Once an animal arrives, it enters a quarantine process tailored to its species, health status and behavioral needs. In some cases, animals are housed in designated quarantine spaces, while others may remain in specialized barn areas, depending on what is safest and least stressful for each animal.

Beyond animal transfers, the zoo maintains strict daily biosecurity protocols throughout the facility. These include disinfection procedures, foot baths, dedicated cleaning tools for different animal areas, and careful oversight of food sourcing and nutrition. 

For The Future

“Every aspect of the zoo goes back to the animals,” Dr. Gall says proudly. That is evident when visitors walk the grounds. Signage and educational opportunities remind visitors that these animals are here for a greater purpose and that, to look forward to the future, we must care for the now.