Army to Privatize Garrison Dining
Army to Privatize Garrison Dining
In an Oct. 16 presentation at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition, leaders announced that the service’s cadre of cooks—culinary specialists in the Army’s lexicon—will be relieved of their responsibility of running installation dining facilities under a plan currently in development.
The shift, part of the Army’s Food Program Strategy, is intended to improve quality of life for these soldiers, who run garrison dining facilities 365 days a year while still maintaining their proficiency in field feeding, said Sydney Smith, director of supply policy and programs in the office of the deputy Army chief of staff for logistics, G-4. The change will give culinary specialists more time to improve their soldiering skills and focus on their primary mission of feeding troops in the field, whether during training or while deployed.
Responsibility for operating installation dining facilities will eventually shift to contracted companies that will have to compete for soldiers’ business with other dining options across installations. This “campus dining model,” developed in part by learning lessons from college campuses, would include alternatives such as grab-and-go kiosks, food trucks and take-out options.
Speaking during a Warriors Corner presentation, Smith linked the food transformation efforts to the Army’s wider focus on holistic health and fitness, calling food “one of the cornerstones of the Army fitness program.” She said the changes to garrison food service will “increase food accessibility, provide flexible food options and improve the Army dining facility experience,” which she said has remained largely unchanged since the 1950s.
Col. Adam Seibel, troop support division chief on the Army Food Transformation team in the Army G-4, said the service believes this increased competition will lead to sustained quality in the food served in traditional dining facilities.
At the same time, the “dining experience” in these facilities will adapt for the times. “We’re going to change the ambiance” in dining facilities, said Renee Mosher, deputy chief of staff for logistics, G-4, at Army Materiel Command. “I use ‘dining experience’ deliberately,” she said. “It’s now going to be a more pleasurable experience with options. There will be several food stations available, in addition to more flexible hours that meet service member mission requirements.”
Mosher said the Army has been diligent in drafting the forthcoming solicitation for these contracted garrison food services. While declining to provide an exact date for when Materiel Command will release the request for proposals, Mosher said it was nearly complete.
— Tom McCuin