THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 23, 1994 TAG: 9411220636
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KRYS STEFANSKY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
No more generic products. No more specially packaged government foods.
At Oceana's General Mess, sailors have name brand foods on their plates at breakfast, lunch and dinner - the same sold to area restaurants off base.
It's a welcome change.
``It was good,'' said Bruce W. Barclay, an aviation structural mechanic and regular diner at the naval air station's mess hall. ``I've noticed an improvement in services, and in quality and appearance as far as what was being served.''
The switch was made six months ago at Oceana and three other area military bases, following a federal report on the Department of Defense food inventory. The June 1993 report by the General Accounting Office recommended that the DOD replace its cumbersome food warehousing and food distribution systems.
The old way called for government specifications, special packaging, hauling items to military warehouses and then redistributing them via military transport to military installations and ships.
The new way allows for name brand groceries to come to military bases directly from commercial food suppliers.
Michael Marino, the food service officer at Oceana's enlisted dining hall, saw the old way wasn't working.
``Now we're getting improved quality and the name brand items we're getting - A.1. Steak Sauce, Del Monte, La Choy - they weren't available through the Naval Supply Center,'' Marino said. ``We were getting generic brand items. Sometimes that was a soy sauce that was half water.''
Commercial food distributors had already sold and delivered food to military hospitals in the Washington, D.C., area. To bring the idea here, the DOD created a pilot program called Prime Vendor.
John E. Steenberge is chief of DOD Prime Vendor Region East at the Defense Personnel Support Center in Philadelphia. His department solicited bids from private industry full-line food distributors who carry everything from meats to milk.
The new way has increased choices and cut delivery time.
``It's one of the best things that has ever happened to them,'' said Steenberge of military mess halls. ``In the past, we had central warehousing. There was a 30-day lead time before they'd see something they ordered. Canned food took two months. It meant we had to keep big inventories.
``Now, lead time is 48 hours and we can have something in 24 hours if they need it. The customers are so happy, they just want to come up and kiss us.''
In mess hall kitchens, military cooks are thrilled.
``It doesn't make a lot of difference to the patron in the dining hall that the chicken came from Tyson's,'' Steenberge said. ``But the cook in the back is happy to see a label name because he knows it's not coming from some fly-by-night company.''
Sandler Foods, a local company just acquired by national retailer Sara Lee, won the contract to supply 1,466 food items to the General Mess at Oceana, and to the dining halls on three other installations - Camp Lejeune, Langley Air Force Base, Fort Lee - and one ship, the Mississippi, a nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser based in Norfolk. The estimated contract amount was $16.5 million dollars.
``It was a successful amount of business,'' said William Bernstein, who works in the company's contract division.``The retailer treats its military customers like anybody else. If they want Hunts ketchup, we'll supply it to them. If they want Heinz, we'll sell it to them. If we don't have it, we'll go out and purchase it.''
The cost difference or savings of the prime vendor program is under study. But the demonstration project has worked so well, said Steenberge, that it expanded last month to more than 200 delivery points.
Many of them are ships. The estimated value of those contracts is $83 million. Food distributors across the United States can sharpen their pencils.
``We're going to roll out through the rest of the country,'' Steenberge said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
Michael Marino, the food service officer at Oceana's enlisted dining
hall, checks over a shipment of food items from Sandler Foods, which
supplies four bases in the region.
by CNB