FORT BLISS, Texas – Culinary specialists assigned to the 153rd Quartermaster Field Feeding Company, Special Troops Battalion, 1st Armored Division Sustainment Brigade ensure mission readiness through preparing and distributing nutritious meals to Soldiers.
With the Department of Defense recently celebrating Nutrition Month in March 2023, it is clearer than ever that diet diversity and focus on performance-enhancing food choices is vital for Soldiers. Culinary specialists in 1st Armored Division recognize this, and they are ready to deliver.
“When it comes to the food environment, I absolutely love it and the logistics of it is rewarding,” said Staff Sgt. Destiny Herring, a culinary specialist and noncommissioned officer at the Combat Aviation Brigade Dining Facility. “Our meals provide a balanced diet that ensures we all receive the perfect nutritional meal in the field or anywhere else.”
During the planning process, culinary specialists use a production plan where they determine what foods need to be cooked, when and where the food needs to be distributed, and how much food needs to be prepared for the upcoming weeks.
“The process of ordering food starts off with what we call the production schedule, which is then approved by the dining facility manager,” said Spc. Darius Coleman, a culinary specialist and the noncommissioned officer-in-charge of the administration section. “Then we use the green-to-go system to order our food, which makes sure we receive the proper nutrients for each meal.
The green-to-go system determines the nutritional value of foods and it is a valuable resource that promotes balanced meals. The system places all foods in color-coded categories that allows individuals to quickly determine the nutritional value of each dish. Green labels are healthy, yellow is somewhat healthy, and red is unhealthy.
“Food selection is important for more than one reason,” Herring said. “A meals-ready-to-eat or MRE has mostly all of the nutrition that we need, and we could go that route, but a better route would be to give our Soldiers a hot meal.”
The importance of food variety cannot be overstated and culinary specialists are fully aware that providing a variety of foods, including hot meals and nutrition can boost the overall morale of Soldiers, ultimately improving mission success.
“Whenever a Soldier is ready for food, I’m sure they aren’t thinking about eating meals-ready-to-eat,” Coleman said. “When I provide a Soldier with a hot meal after a long day, I feel like it’s that much more satisfying for them.”
The Combat Aviation Brigade Dining Facility is equipped and ready to provide Soldiers with the amount of nutrition daily that they need to achieve mission success.
“We are always going to be ready to support whomever we have to support,” said Coleman.
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