Washington D.C. – Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland (WA-10) emphasized the need to improve food access, nutritional value, and taste for servicemembers to ensure they receive the high-quality meals they deserve. Strickland’s remarks are transcribed below, and can be viewed here:
Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland: Great, thank you, Chairman Fallon and Ranking Member Houlahan. I have the honor of representing Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and I think about people that age, the choices they make when they’re getting food—especially the people who live in the barracks. I think about barriers that they may have.
So, can you talk to me about some of the feedback you’ve received from people that you surveyed? How easily is it accessible, especially given their schedules? How far are the dining hall facilities from the barracks that they stay in? What type of offerings are they getting? And then also, how do you assure that nutritious food is what’s on the menu as well?
I’ll start with you, General Mohan.
General Christopher O. Mohan: Thank you for that question. I was stationed at then-Fort Lewis several years ago, and we had a network of dining facilities. The landscape has changed somewhat, and so what we’ve seen the Army do—and senior commanders again, this is a senior commanders’ program—is to layer transportation on top of food service and offer the Rainier Express, which is an Uber-like app where soldiers can get picked up where they are. Particularly in times of high operational tempo, when we might have our dining facility personnel deployed to the field or out in the Pacific on an exercise, we shuttle and move those soldiers around.
As far as nutritious food in the dining facilities, all of our recipes are approved by dietitians and come from a process of oversight that comes from our Joint Culinary Center. They operate off those recipe cards. I will admit that kiosks have been somewhat of a challenge because one, we had catastrophic success in a couple of places when we rolled them out—again, not realizing how exactly popular they would be. We leaned on our partners in the Defense Commissary Agency to basically upscale the food that we have in our kiosks to meet the demand that we have at our installations.
Strickland: Alright, Vice Admiral Gray?
Vice Admiral Scott Gray: Thank you for the question, ma’am. First and foremost, I would say I am very frustrated by the low utilization rate by our sailors. It breaks my heart, frankly, to know that we take their entitlement, and then we see them oftentimes using Uber Eats or going to McDonald’s or Five Guys on the base. So, we’re essentially paying twice for the food, and for these young folks who don’t have a lot of money, it’s a crusher for me.
I will tell you that we do a great job, I think, in providing healthy options for nutrient-dense foods. The barracks are typically in the vicinity of the galley. Many of our sailors work aboard ships, so they can eat on the ship or choose to eat off the ship on the galley. There are options.
From a health perspective, we follow—as all of us do—the DoD 1338 instruction, which outlines the food options that we have to make. For example, we typically do a minimum of three entrées, one of them vegetarian. You will have multiple fruit options, three to four cereal options, a hot cereal option, vegetables and starches, etc. All of those menus that our dietitian review as well, are reviewed to ensure that they meet the USDA criteria.
So, we offer it. It’s available to them. But we’ve got to do a better job at getting them in the door and making them want to take advantage of their entitlement.
Strickland: Mr. Larry?
Horace L. “H.L.” Larry: Yes, ma’am. We think we do a pretty decent job with this one, especially in terms of the way we have structured our menus and continually work them. We used to be on a 14-day cycle menu; now we’re at 28. What that does is it’s laid out for the whole month. Virtually, the member will see what he or she’s going to have for meals when they go in that dining facility—and that’s been very, very popular.
The other part of that is, when you look at it from a nutritional value perspective, and we go back to OSD’s construct of “Go for Green,” we have really zeroed in on that very heavily. Also, with our friends in the Army and Air Force Exchange—what percentage of your products in these facilities are healthy items, and how are they coded?
So when a novice person like H.L. Larry walks in, I don’t have to read every element on the menu. It’s coded so I can see, this is healthy, this is the least nutrient-dense, etcetera, and I know what I’m looking for. We also make sure we have those nutrient items up front so they pick those before they see the others.
Strickland: Thank you. Major General Woodworth?
Major General Woodworth: Thank you for the question, ma’am. I would start by saying the most important thing we need to do is make it taste better.
Strickland: I was going to ask—do you all season the food?
Major General Woodworth: Yes, ma’am. There are recipes, of course, but yes, absolutely—we need to make it taste better if we want more people to come there. We have a program called “Fuel to Fight,” which is essentially a Marine nutrition education program that we’re working really hard on. We need to provide more hours, more grab-and-go options, and better-tasting food. Thank you ma’am.
Strickland: All right, well thank you very much for all of your hard work with this. We do appreciate it, and we appreciate your attention to quality of life for those who are serving. Thank you so much. I yield back Mr. Chair.
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