Courtesy Photo | The Army & Air Force Exchange Service's bakery in Gruenstadt, Germany, makes Krispy...... read more read more
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For Cpl. Deamborene Outlaw, a simple slice of Wonder bread goes a long way toward making South Korea feel more like home.
“It’s comforting to me because it’s like a little piece of home,” said Outlaw, who serves as a chaplain’s assistant at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys in South Korea. “I’ve lived in several different places in the States, and everywhere I’ve been in the States has had Wonder bread or baked goods. It’s like a comfort food.”
The Army & Air Force Exchange Service takes care of Outlaw and other troops serving overseas through its four bakeries—three in the Pacific and one in Germany—that produce fresh-baked goods made with American flour, so the bread, buns, rolls, tortillas, cakes, doughnuts and other treats taste just like they do back home.
Baked goods from name brands, including Wonder, Home Pride, Country Hearth, Milton’s and more are shipped to Exchange Express stores and restaurants across Europe, Southwest Asia and the Pacific, nourishing Soldiers, Airmen and military families with familiar, fresh-baked products and a taste of home. Commissaries, military dining halls, ships in port, Quality-of-Life restaurants and child-care programs and Department of Defense Education Activity schools also receive the Exchange-made products.
“Because all of our goods are baked fresh, the quality is so much better than if we were to ship frozen products from the States,” said Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Luis Reyes, the Exchange’s senior enlisted advisor. “From Burger King buns for Whoppers to whole-wheat bread for kids’ school meals, the Exchange’s bakeries improve the quality of lives for those who are so far from America by giving them a simple taste of home.”
The largest of the Exchange bakeries is in Gruenstadt, Germany, and it serves 24 countries, including warzone locations. The 92,000-square-foot facility even produces Krispy Kreme doughnuts using proprietary equipment and ingredients—so the doughnuts rolling off the line are just like the ones found at Krispy Kreme shops back in the United States. In 2016, the plant produced 7 million Krispy Kreme doughnuts for troops and families across Europe.
The Exchange also operates bakeries at Camp Market, Korea; Camp Kinser, Okinawa; and at Yokota Air Base, Japan. Together, they produce 2 million loaves of bread, 10.5 million buns and more than 12,500 decorated cakes a year.
“Through the bakeries, the Exchange serves thousands of Soldiers, Airmen and military families overseas,” Reyes said. “Exchange is ‘all in’ when it comes to taking care of troops, and the bakeries are just another example of how we touch the lives of America’s warfighters.”
And for Cpl. Outlaw in Korea, that means the world to her.
“On days when the op tempo is really high, I can rely on my Exchange to provide me with something that’s warm and fluffy and buttery and all those good things,” she said.
| Date Taken: | 02.09.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 02.23.2017 17:55 |
| Story ID: | 224620 |
| Location: | DALLAS, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 282 |
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This work, Exchange Bakeries Nourish Troops’ Spirits Overseas with Fresh-Baked Tastes of Home, by Julie Mitchell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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