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Base dining transformation underway at four AMC bases

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Gina Vaccaro McKeen
  • Air Force Personnel Center Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  Would you like to purchase a sub sandwich at a food court near your work place using your meal card?

If you are an Airman at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., MacDill AFB, Fla., Little Rock AFB, Ark., or Fairchild AFB, Wash., you may be able to do just that as a pilot program gets underway to transform base dining options.

The pilot program of the Air Force Services Agency's Food Transformation Initiative is gearing up to bring a new way of dining on Air Force bases around the U.S.

Gen. Raymond E. Johns, Jr., commander of Air Mobility Command, approved this week the "go-ahead" at four AMC bases chosen for the pilot program.

"It's the most radical change since 1949," said Col. Lee O. Wyatt, director of AMC Manpower, Personnel and Services. "We want to create a campus-style dining environment using a contract partner. It's already been successful at many colleges and universities, increasing usage rate by 30 percent."

The Air Force is changing the way it delivers food in order to meet the needs of today's Airmen. For the past 60 years, the Air Force has been feeding Airmen based on a much larger, more stationary force. With the transition to a smaller, expeditionary force, Air Force leaders are looking to make dining programs more flexible, available and efficient.

"This is about Airmen and for Airmen," said Brian Floyd, the deputy director of the force support squadron at Travis AFB. "We have heard loud and clear what our Airmen want, and (this change) is all about offering them better quality food, more variety and a sense of community when dining."

Dining facilities will be open to all members of the base community, much like common business and university campuses, services officials said.

"The changes will be tremendous," Mr. Floyd said. "Airmen will have great choices of where to eat ... and will have better quality and better variety -- just what they have been asking for."

While Services officials are excited about the forthcoming changes, they emphasized they will not happen immediately and that each base will be different. The first phase of the program is about improving menu options, they said, and the total transformation will take time.

The deputy of the 92nd Force Support Squadron at Fairchild AFB, Ed Nunn Jr., is enthusiastic about the transformation initiative.

"The lifestyles and needs of our Airmen have changed over the years, and this is designed to improve the variety and availability of food and beverage options for our Airmen to effectively meet those needs," he said.

The initiative will open military food service establishments to all members of the base community, including civilian employees, family members, contractors and retirees. Diners will see an overall increase in the variety and availability of healthy menu options on base.

Opening the transformed dining venues to all members of the base will restore a sense of community because all members of the base community will be able to eat together, Mr. Floyd said.

"Now all of these groups of people will be able to share quality food in a family type of atmosphere at the dining [facility], as well as at other food venues on base," he said.

Airmen who are part of the Essential Station Messing program will continue to utilize the program for their daily meals. Currently, Airmen who are part of the ESM program are only authorized to eat at the base dining facility. Eventually, services officials hope these Airmen will be able to eat at all FSS dining venues on base under the ESM program.

"ESM participants will initially benefit from the increased dining options at the transformed dining facilities -- eventually they will benefit from the increased flexibility and variety at all the FSS dining venues on base." Mr. Nunn added.

The dining facility at Travis AFB averages 24,397 ESM meals served each month, and serves between 900 and 1,015 customers daily. The numbers increase to approximately 1,600 customers on Reserve weekends.

At Travis AFB, Services officials found many of the base food facilities were competing against each other. Customers will have different food offerings and experiences at each food facility, Mr. Floyd said.

"Airmen today want variety and quality at a fair price," Mr. Floyd added. "By offering these Airmen more of a variety here on base, we can meet their changing lifestyles and keep up with their changes in tastes. We will be able to provide options and quality products Airmen will want to come back for."

The folks at Travis AFB are very excited about the changes, Mr. Floyd added. "The No. 1 thing we keep hearing is 'we can't wait for the change. Can it happen sooner?'"

Airmen eating the food in the transformed dining venues are not the only ones who will benefit, Mr. Nunn said.

"The new program will enhance the training programs we need to uphold for our military cooks," Mr. Nunn said. "Our partnership with food service industry leaders will bring state-of-the-art techniques to Fairchild AFB, subsequently serving to bolster our existing training programs and enhancing the quality of service we provide to Airmen in home bases and wartime environments."

Mr. Floyd also emphasized the importance Services Airmen have in meeting the Air Force's mission.

"The Air Force has military cooks to help support our warfighting mission and provide quality of life through our dining venues, menus and food options," Mr. Floyd added. "We ensure our primary customers -- junior enlisted Airmen on the ESM program and deploying Airmen leaving the base -- receive nutritious meals that allow them to do their job well and accomplish the mission."

Air Force chefs will be given opportunities to train outside of the dining facility to increase their cooking skills. This additional training is another way services officials are preparing their Airmen for even the most rigorous of jobs, Mr. Floyd stated.

"We couldn't be more excited or ready for this quality-of-life initiative to begin," Mr. Floyd said. "The more we can do to enhance the lives of our Airmen, the better they can do in meeting the mission; and this goes a long way toward improving everyone's quality of life."

(Air Mobility Command Public Affairs contributed to this article.)