Elmendorf to participate in new dining program

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Gina Vaccaro McKeen
  • Air Force Personnel Center Public Affairs
RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Airmen at six bases, including Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, may soon see changes to their dining venues and food and beverage options bringing greater quality and variety, Air Force services officials said recently.

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.

The five other Air Force bases participating in the pilot of this initiative are Patrick AFB, Fla., MacDill AFB, Fla., Fairchild AFB, Wash., Little Rock AFB, Ark., and Travis AFB, Calif.

With FTI, 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.

"FTI is about Airmen and for Airmen," said Brian Floyd, the deputy director of the force support squadron at Travis Air Force Base, one of the pilot bases for this initiative. "We have heard loud and clear what our Airmen want, and FTI is all about offering them better quality food, more variety and a sense of community when dining."

FTI will reinvigorate Air Force dining by hiring a contractor to transition to hybrid facilities on bases that will be open to all members of the base community, much like common business and university campuses, services officials said.

Many base dining facilities have utilization rates of less than 50 percent. In lieu of closing these facilities, Air Force plans call for transforming operations. This transformation will preserve the services mission to provide meals to Airmen and will bring positive changes to the way Airmen are fed on base, services officials said.

"The changes will be tremendous," 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 FTI is designed to improve the variety and availability of food and beverage options for our Airmen to effectively meet those needs," he said.

FTI 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, 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 hall as well as at other food venues on base," he stated.

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," Nunn said.

Since FTI is designed to be customer-driven, it will allow food operation staffs to focus specifically on Airmen's needs while also meeting the Air Force mission. Airmen eating the food in the transformed dining venues are not the only ones who will benefit from FTI, Nunn said.

"The new program will enhance the training programs we need to uphold for our military cooks," Mr. Nunn said. "FTI's 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."

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," 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."

With FTI, 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, Floyd said.

"We couldn't be more excited or ready for this quality-of-life initiative to begin," 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."