Guest Editorial
by David Staples USA (ret.)
Food Service operations across the Services are working hard to retain diners with all the dining opportunities across the installation and outside the gates of the installation. Diner choices are trending across the full spectrum of dining opportunities from fast food to sit down restaurants; offering healthy, nutritious meals from plant based to meat proteins. Diners are looking for speed of service, grab and go and dining hours of that meet their hectic schedules. Health, convenience, and social media all play important roles in diners food choices. They enjoy on line ordering and delivery service to their locations whether that is the barracks or their stay-at-home orders. The young Soldier, Airman, Marine or Sailor is no different than the College student in their eating habits and Gen Z. They are the same demographics.
Healthy fast food is a popular choice like Chick-fil-A and it is the most popular restaurant among Gen Z, keeping its No. 1 spot for seven consecutive surveys. Notably, 49% of either consume or are willing to try plant-based products.
Understanding these changes in dining habits makes it critical for our Dining Facilities to provide the service and offering these young Service Members are looking for as we compete for their dining dollars is this competitive market with all the choices available to them. A key point in service is they will not eat every meal in the dining facility but we must provide the online, grab & go and food choices they are looking for to be successful in our dining operations.
It is very interesting to see the differences between the Service’s in how they provide their customer/diner feeding options and menu choices. From contract operation of dining facilities, Military Culinary Specialists operation of dining facilities, to hybrid operations of both contract and Military Culinary Specialist operation of dining facilities. The Services initiatives range from KIOSK and Food Trucks, to support the Campus Style Dining opportunities, in addition to the new Warrior Restaurant Center initiative, reflect the Services initiatives to reinvigorate their support of the customers as their priority in supporting the Community.
Raise your hand if you think the AMC/IMCOM new Warrior Restaurant Center will increase the meal card holders consume his total food dollars? I am someone who thinks this new initiative will perhaps increase the Soldier ESM/Meal Card diner entitlement; however, at what cost to the overall food service program? To try and make this new program successful, AMC has taken the highest headcount Appropriated Fund (APF) dining facility (DFAC) on the installation and will be turning it over to IMCOM Non-Appropriated Fund contract for food service operations. Allocating the funding, to bring this facility as stated in their objective to “modernize Soldier (21st Century capability) feeding alternative, what is described as the Army’s legacy dining facility operations”, to execute a Campus Style Dining venue supporting Soldiers, families, and the installation Community. The problem comes in that AMC is still responsible for improving the legacy dining facilities and bringing them into the 21st Century in support the Soldier and the families. Where is the funding and direction to improve these dining facilities and maintain their operations so the existing DFACs are the Soldiers preferred dining choice? This has always been the problem with food service operations is competing for funding- these funds are not fenced. During the past years, at-war funding has been in support of the Warfighter, as it should be. However, improving and maintaining these facilities have fell short. Now funding is being moved to support a NAF operation versus improving the current legacy dining facility operations.
Why do a WRC NAF operation at all? Why not take the APF Dining Facility and use the funds to bring the facility into the 21st Century? You don’t need a WRC under NAF to improve the feeding operations as all you need to do is invest in the APF Dining Facility using the same Campus Style dining initiative with Brand and other dining options. This would keep the color of money and the investment without NAF being involved. JCCoE has brought the Food Trucks, KIOSKs, and new Bistro into the dining options available for Meal Card Soldiers and updating the current legacy facilities into the Campus Style operation would further make the dining facilities the preferred choice and the best option for the entire community – Soldiers, Family Members, DA Civilians and others on the installations.
We would encourage the entire existing ecosystem of feeding the Warfighter to reflect and reassess how “business processes and protocols” can be improved. Each HQ must internally reflect on why are 55+ year-olds making dining decisions for the 18-30 year-old demographic? Why does it take so long to change menus, refresh the menu with new products and why can’t Limited Time Offerings (LTOs) be featured? Perhaps the answer is hidden right before our eyes?
These legacy facilities must be supported to provide dining opportunities across the installation for the Soldier working and living on the installation. We must continue to move forward as change is always good but it must be equal across the feeding operations and meet the Soldier choices and their schedule. We will see how this new Warrior Restaurant Center works in supporting the Soldier meal card holder and if it increases his entitlement use percentage and what the increase in cost may be to the Army accounts. Change is good and it is well needed to increase diner meal card utilization as this has been a long time coming. Yet, change for change sake can be counter-productive. How do changes benefit the Warfighter? Will the Warfighter be attracted to such changes and are they sustainable? Are we being good stewards of the taxpayers’ resources?
One last thing to consider- “There is no limit what we can do or where we can go, if we don’t mind who gets the credit” – Ronald Reagan
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