Have you seen any information or evidence regarding Dining Facility Contractors removing food from facility?

PO2 Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 29 May 2016 16:08:15 -0400

Contractors are limiting portions served and are going home with grocery bags full of food. I do not believe this is right at all because the service members are the ones paying for the food not the contractors. Please let me know what you think.

Response by Alan K. made May 29 at 2016 4:10 PM

Alan K. — Sun, 29 May 2016 16:10:21 -0400

It is called theft of product and I would stop it dead in it's tracks immediately or it will continue and get worse......I used to be a Restaurant turnaround specialist. Where is this located and would you like it fixed?

Response by Cpl Edward T. Brickeen Jr. made May 29 at 2016 4:35 PM

Cpl Edward T. Brickeen Jr. — Sun, 29 May 2016 16:35:19 -0400

in my experience, most, if not all, companies who run the d-facs watch the food like hawks. Once audits are done and food is wound upo missing, the culprits will be terminated. As far as portion limitation, yeah, that happens. Companies like Sudexo care a ton about plate costs. To limit the costs, they encourage their servers, some of which can barely understand English, to short portions and make 2 portions last four or more ways. I worked in dining facilities managed by Sudexo and by Marines and the difference is staggering.

Response by SP5 Private RallyPoint Member made May 29 at 2016 7:17 PM

SP5 Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 29 May 2016 19:17:34 -0400

PO2 Private RallyPoint Member Call the Navy equivalent of the cops, with some smart phone photos, dates and times as data to support your incident report. Theft of food from service members should be a felony offense.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made May 29 at 2016 7:46 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 29 May 2016 19:46:36 -0400

That would be larceny of government property a crime.

Response by PO1 Brian Austin made May 29 at 2016 8:25 PM

PO1 Brian Austin — Sun, 29 May 2016 20:25:34 -0400

Theft of govt property. Document it and notify NCIS.

Based on your profile location, i'm assuming you're on a Navy base.

Response by CW2 Louis Melendez made May 29 at 2016 9:26 PM

CW2 Louis Melendez — Sun, 29 May 2016 21:26:28 -0400

Like you said, service members are paying for the food. It is disrespectful from those contractors to limit portions based on their own interests. Bring it up to NCIS or whatever law enforcement agency that is available to you. What a shame...

Response by SSG Karl Fowler made May 30 at 2016 3:43 PM

SSG Karl Fowler — Mon, 30 May 2016 15:43:48 -0400

Great question brings back memory of the desert in 2003 when we were feed hot dogs and bologna and rice buffet and across the street at the subway the line seemed very long

Response by SPC Roger Giffen made Jun 3 at 2016 6:15 PM

SPC Roger Giffen — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 18:15:30 -0400

We caught the mess Sergeant stealing good when I was in Germany. Never could figure out why they ran out of food after 20 minutes on the weekends and everyone got to eat hot dogs.

Response by SGT Joshua Strup made Jun 3 at 2016 6:57 PM

SGT Joshua Strup — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 18:57:25 -0400

If they are indeed blatantly reducing portions to this end, they are wrong; however, I have no problem with them taking extras home at the end of the day. Call it a work perk.

Response by SPC Trevor Berryhill made Jun 4 at 2016 2:50 AM

SPC Trevor Berryhill — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 02:50:11 -0400

Does any of this suprise you guys at all? Its the service, they pay crooks and criminals to do things that we enlisted to do.

Response by PO2 Suzan Reed made Jun 4 at 2016 3:53 AM

PO2 Suzan Reed — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 03:53:56 -0400

Get rid of the contractors and bring back the cooks.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 4 at 2016 9:28 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 09:28:14 -0400

If there is reason to suspect theft... best course of action is to report it to the contracting office or contracting officer representative. If that doesn't work... refer to CID.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 4 at 2016 12:46 PM

MAJ Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 12:46:50 -0400

Is this left over food? Or unused un-opened food? Anyone caught on film? Highly doubtful at most DFACs. Walk in any army DFAC and you see pix of the OIC, a few QM warrant officers and the NCOIC. Those places from all I've seen are highly scrutinized.
If perishable food does expire without being used hopefully in the future they (1) order much less of it and (2) have some type of arrangement with a local Food Bank or non-profit food pantry. Folks are always amazed at the number of folks who show up at Mission Killeen for basic non-perishable food staples, diapers etc. And yes, a few of those have been young army wives with zero experience at budgeting anything much less anything on an E3 paycheck.

Response by Sgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 4 at 2016 1:19 PM

Sgt Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 13:19:29 -0400

Your most likely correct. That would be the perfect way for the workers to make sure that had left over to take home. If 2 or 3 workers take 1 to 2 meals home or more than that. Over the course of a month there is a half truck load of extra food that some workers just lined their own pockets with. Could a 100 dollar savings per worker each month. That's the reason they do it. And the contractors are crooks also, while I worked for the National Park Service the Mess-Hall there at the location was run by contractors for the Army and Coast-Guard. But I could also eat there. And I did, until over the course of 2 years the cost for the meal went from $4 dollars to $7 and change. They almost doubled the cost for the food in a little over a year

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 4 at 2016 2:56 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 14:56:21 -0400

That's terrible. What happened to military run DF's? Are there no longer cooks in the military?

Response by SCPO Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 4 at 2016 3:21 PM

SCPO Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 15:21:16 -0400

I'm sure a ton of uneaten food gets thrown away every day. Also, I've never eaten at a military dining facility where I couldn't get seconds if I wanted them, not saying they don't exist of course. If it's going in the trash anyway, I could care less if poor workers feed there families with it. If there's a rule against that, which I'm sure there is, I'm sure as hell not going to help enforce it. If that makes me a bad leader, so be it. Given the choice between seeing food thrown away vs going to feed people who typically make less money and have less benefits then me, I'd rather they go home with the food, rules be damned.

Response by SSgt James Connolly made Aug 23 at 2016 4:43 PM

SSgt James Connolly — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 16:43:05 -0400

This goes way back,club managers and head cooks are the only ones that can afford paid for new cars and other bennies that seem to come with the MOS

Response by SSG Max Goodman made Oct 24 at 2017 11:27 AM

SSG Max Goodman — Tue, 24 Oct 2017 11:27:36 -0400

This is fraud..... No one should be able to walk out With uncooked food...