Food services ready to ‘steak’ claim as best in the AF

  • Published
  • By John Ingle
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Sheppard's Food Service Operation is set to jump from pan into the fire Feb. 11-13 as a team of inspectors scrutinize their procedures to determine if they are the best in the Air Force.

The team is part of this year's Hennessey Award that names the top food service operation. Sheppard was selected as the Air Education and Training Command winner after an October inspection.

Food services, headed up by Gabriele Perry, has five dining facilities, a field site dining operation and a central preparation kitchen. Ms. Perry said employees at the facilities are checking and rechecking inspection items to ensure the best possible outcome.

"This is by far the best operation yet," she said. "This is our year to win."

Ms. Perry previously worked in Sheppard's food service operation from 1994-2000. The operation was selected in 1998 as AETC's Food Service Excellence Award winner, but wasn't selected as the top in the Air Force that year.

This time, she said, they are ready to stake claim to the top prize - the Hennessey.

Ms. Perry said the organization has done things from cost-saving measures to renovations to assisting in the Food Network's show "Dinner: Impossible." But she said their primary duty - serving more than 5,000 meals daily - is what will put them over the top.

"The big thing is how we take care of our customers," she said. "We go above and beyond."

A few examples involve the Airmen in Training population here. Ms. Perry said the food service operation isn't required to provide meals for Airmen as the wait to leave Sheppard as part of the annual holiday exodus. But, employees spend hours serving hotdogs, sodas, chips and cookies to Airmen the night they begin to depart.

Also, the staff goes above and beyond during Sheppard's Warrior Weekend Challenge, an event that provides Airmen an alternative form of on-base entertainment for Airmen in Training. Only one dining facility is open on the weekend, but food services stepped up to provide a barbecue meal for the AiTs during the challenge.

"Customer service," Ms. Perry said. "That's our biggy."

The military's oldest food services award was established in 1957 and honors hotel and restaurant executive John L. Hennessey, who worked to improve military food service.

The Hennessey Award is allocated once a year to food service operations that display excellence in every phase, from planning to presentation of meals.