Reach Soldiers’ Hearts Through Their Stomachs

Photo By Lt. Col. William Geddes | Army Reserve Master Sgt. Frank Flowers, a Logistics Services NCO for the 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) tries the meal the Army Reserve Culinary Arts Team made out of a mobile kitchen trailer at the Orlando Armed Forces Reserve Center. The Army Reserve Culinary Arts Team was rehearsing for the upcoming 42nd Annual Military Culinary Arts Competition.  

UNITED STATES

01.31.2017

Story by Maj. William Geddes 

103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary)

FORT DES MOINES, Iowa – Seven members of the Army Reserve Culinary Arts Team preparing to compete in the 42nd Annual Military Culinary Arts Competition faced what may end up being their toughest critics as they prepared a rehearsal meal for 50 food program managers at the Orlando Armed Forces Reserve Center in Orlando, Fla. Jan. 31. The managers, hailing from Army Reserve commands across the continental United States, were attending the US Army Reserve Command Food Service Manager Board, an annual planning and evaluation workshop for Army Reserve Food Service operations.
The rehearsal was a valuable one, giving the team a chance to gel. Whereas active duty teams competing in the MCAC typically train together for months in preparation for the competition, the Army Reserve is only able to train together for a few days at events such as this one. “This is the first time we’ve been able to get the team together to prepare the entire meal,” said Warrant Officer Candidate Joseph Parker, 143rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary). “When you are able to get the team together, and have a menu planned out, and see what mistakes you make and where you can improve -- it makes us more of a team and able to accomplish the mission. With the Army Reserve team, we have reservists from all over the country, not from all over the post.” The distance involved in pulling in Army Reserve Soldiers from across the country makes it hard to find a central location to get everyone together to train. Not having the access to the Soldiers 365 days a year makes the training process and learning curve a little more steep, which is only amplified by the fact that most Reserve cooks do not cook for a living; they have other jobs on the civilian side. All of this makes training opportunities such as this one imperative for team success.
Overcoming all of those hurdles is not the most valuable part of the training however. The impact of these opportunities on training and readiness, both of the Army Reserve food service field and of the units it supports, is profound. Team members are able to share cooking techniques, best practices, and improve the skill sets and production of Army Reserve food service. That improvement directly affects Soldier morale and unit readiness. “It can be as simple as focusing on practices that people don’t often use, such as buying a whole chicken rather than precut chicken breasts, and using the chicken bones to make chicken stock to put in a marmite to take out the range on a qualification weekend so the Soldiers can have something warm in addition to their MRE,” said Parker. “It’s great for morale, and the better the food quality is in a unit, the better the morale is, which helps Soldiers with the training. Anytime you are cooking from scratch, you are going to use less processed food, which results in a better nutritional value, less sodium, Soldiers able to absorb the nutrients more readily – it improves your combat readiness. It means more proteins, more amino acids, which helps the Soldiers’ muscles build and recover better and perform the way they need to perform.”
“If you want Soldiers who are prepared for what comes next, Soldiers who are physically fit, mentally tough and thoroughly determined to survive and win on the battlefield, then you better make sure they are well-fed,” said CW3 Danny Wolf, 103rd ESC Food Service Officer. “The Soldier’s nutrition directly impacts their health and readiness. How well fed that Soldier is directly impacts their morale and how motivated they are to get out there and make good training happen. Our (Army Reserve Culinary Arts Team) Soldiers will bring back better skills to their units, skills like knife skills, skills like cooking from scratch to increase the nutritional value of the meal instead of using processed food—all of that is going to mean better fed, more motivated Soldiers for the unit.”
The team members come from across the Army Reserve, increasing the impact brought back to the field. In addition to Parker and Wolf, attending this training were CW2 Colby Beard, 11th Theater Aviation Command, Sgt Aqueelah James, 3rd Medical Command, CW3 Ragene Warner, 451st ESC, Sgt. Bernardo Rios, 311th ESC, and Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Vaughan, Military Intelligence Reserve Command.
Vaughan agreed with Parker’s assessment on the impact of the team on the Army Reserve food service program. The skills he gained working on the Mobile Kitchen Trailer with other team members aided him in inspecting his down trace units, reinforcing what right looks like, and making sure the units are on the path to awesome. “Getting a good, nutritious meal out to the Soldiers is important, so a good cook is like a million bucks for a unit,” said Vaughan. “You don’t know what you are going to get out in the field, and if you have a cook working that is not properly trained – you can mess up a meal for hundreds of people.”
The meal this team prepared was far from messed up, according to Master Sgt. Frank Flowers, a 103rd ESC Logistics Services NCO who was one of the fortunate 50 who were seated for the experience. He praised the taste, texture and presentation of the meal, adding it would be an excellent meal prepared anywhere, let alone on an MKT, making him excited for the impact of the team on the field. “Anything like this – it lets the team members see what is out there,” Flowers said. “They can pick up on different options for cooking and making a meal, and then bring it to the down trace. If you have a Soldier who is well fed, they are going to perform better; they are going to want to get out there, especially when they understand the nutritional value of what they eat and why we serve it in so many different ways. The way to a Soldier’s heart is through their stomach.

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• Date Taken: 01.31.2017
• Date Posted: 02.09.2017 13:33
• Story ID: 223019
• Location: US