Iditarod Dining Facility continues improvements

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jack Sanders
  • JBER PAO
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  Members of the Iditarod Dining Facility have been working diligently in an effort to continue improving the dining experience for their patrons.

Those who haven't been to the Iditarod Dining Facility might be inclined to do so and take notice in the many changes the facility has made already and, while there, take the time to voice opinions on the upcoming changes too.

"What we have going now are the Panini's," said Tech. Sgt. Breeden, Iditarod Dinning Facility manager. "Everybody's talking about the Paninis."

According to Breedan, Panini sandwiches are the tip of the iceberg for changes to come to the dining facility.

"You can see some of the aesthetics of the building have changed just by looking around," Breeden said. "There is new signage, new pans, and a new way of displaying items. There are a few new items on the snack line and just the way we present them (is new)."

New changes have also brought in more patrons for the dining facility.

The head count, according to Breeden, has gone up approximately 10 percent since the implementation of the changes, although the sergeant says he attributes most of the increase to an earlier change, which allowed people who didn't always have access to the facility to now partake.

The improvements at the Iditarod, along with a higher head count, come with a learning curve.

"You work with an existing facility it's not like you just have multimillions of dollars laying around to expand facilities or expand seating, it has to take time," Breeden said. "(The plan is) a phase plan.

You have to understand that as military and the (government) civilian cooks, we've been trained a certain way of doing business and we've been trained to do it that way for the past 25, 30 years now.

"To implement a major change all at one time, (wouldn't work because) we wouldn't be able to do it and that's why we're doing this phase in," Breeden said. "That's why one October you saw us change over the sandwich bar and the snack bar.

"Now everybody's getting comfortable with knowing the recipes and knowing how to prepare the stuff out there," he continued. "Now we go into the second phase, which is, knowing how to prepare the entree. That will be tentatively on one November."

"(We also incorporated the use of credit and debit cards) about a week and a half ago," said the sergeant. "Of course that's the second part to the whole thing.

You've got an increased head count now, you've got a different procedures for the cashiers.

The cashiers that have worked here have never had to work with credit or debit cards.

"There's a new process with new menus that they're having to find on the screen and add in an additional head count," Breedan continued. "Well, now your lines are starting to back up because until they learn where everything is on that computer screen, it's going to take them a few extra seconds per-person to ring up.

Then if you add in the fact that you've got 50 people standing in line, then those few extra seconds per-person adds up to a few minutes really quickly."

Iditarod patrons never fear though, because dining facility staff has a solution for the line problems too.

"We have a fix for that," Breeden said. "It might take a couple of months, but the long-term goal is to take those cashiers' stands and put them on a bias and add two more cash registers so you end up with four. We'll still have just the two stands but there'll be two cash registers on the stands.

"You still have four lines going through, but you have an individual cash register for each line instead of one cash register doing this side to this side. That's not going to occur until at the earliest Jan. 1, but we're not set in stone for that date."

Breeden said, another way to reduce lines, until the construction changes are made, is by having patrons stagger their meal times.

"The other thing is given the opportunity, obviously we know that people only have but so much time to eat, for those individuals that have the opportunity to come at different hours," Breeden said. "Now we're open from Five o'clock in the morning until seven at night, well not everything is available during those time frames, but the snack line is still open.

They can still come in get a burger, get a ham and cheese, get that type of stuff.

They have grab and go salads and grab and go sandwiches. You can come in during non-meal time hours and still sit down and have something to eat.

"Though for those individuals that have the opportunity, they (can start thinking), 'Hey, I might not have to come in right at noon to get something to eat.

I can probably wait till 1:00, 1:30," Breeden said. "Where before it was we shut the doors right at one o'clock and wouldn't let anyone in.

Well no.

Now you can still come in. We can help spread that customer base out a little bit.

I know it's hard to do, because it's a learning curve for everybody, but if we have dorm residents that are off that are coming to get something to eat, if they want to show up 30 minutes earlier or 30 minutes later they're going to see that the lines really aren't that long."

Aside from the occasional long line the dining facility has had primarily positive feedback.

"It's really nice it's an excellent dining facility," said Tech Sgt. Michael Davidson, 176th Operations Support Squadron. "They're excellent because they have such a wide verity of food you have your fresh main line you have your sandwiches and your fast food."

Changes are evident on the customer side of the dining facility, but not everyone knows exactly what that means for the cooks.

"The nice thing is for the customer's point of view, they see all the nice stuff," Breeden said. "They see the improvements, but what they don't see is the back of the house.

"We're learning new stuff and new processes like every single day to make this work," he continued. "It's been a challenge to say the least, but our primary focus is still always going to be the customer.

"I think we're making minor improvements every day and overall customer satisfaction is high," Breeden said. "We know just as (the patrons) know the major issue is the lines at the cash registers. But, customer comment cards are still coming in positive."

For faithful patrons, meal card holders, or even those who haven't been to the Iditarod lately, Breeden said their staff welcomes them and asks patrons to leave a suggestion or just let the cooks know how they liked the food by filling out a customer comment card located near the entrance.