Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Britney Hiatt | Soldiers eat during the last midnight meal at the Coalition Cafe on Camp Victory,...... read more read more
CAMP VICTORY, Iraq - After providing meals to service members and civilians since July 2004, the Coalition Café on Camp Victory closed its doors after the midnight meal, April 30.
The Coalition Café is the first large-capacity dining facility on Victory Base Complex to close its doors. All dining services on Camp Victory are now provided by the Oasis DFAC.
Sgt. Qumvithea Lee, an intelligence analyst, said this is a positive move for Camp Victory, but that it is bittersweet. Lee was previously deployed here with the military police in 2004.
"When I was first here, I used to go to this DFAC a lot, so I have some good memories," he said. "I'm going to miss it."
The Coalition Café served approximately 16,240,000 meals during the time its doors were open to service members and contractors.
Those meals once served at the Coalition Café will now be served at the Oasis DFAC.
"We are going from feeding about 15,000 people daily to 20,000 people daily in the Oasis," said Sgt. First Class Brian Gorby, III Corps and United States Forces-Iraq senior food operations sergeant. "We are also setting a standard for other DFACs to follow as we consolidate our resources to better serve our patrons."
"I expect the first couple of months to be really busy," said Chief Warrant Officer Sharon McCray, a food service advisor.
Gorby said the Oasis is prepared to support the increase in customers.
"We've added serving lines to the building and have added several hundred more seats, and we've expanded to a 24-hour sandwich bar in order to provide a meal at all hours of the day to take a little pressure off the regular meal hours," Gorby said.
"I think the longest anyone will wait in line is maybe three minutes, as we have about three times the serving capability of the Coalition Café," he said.
"We just ask that everybody be courteous to one another," said McCray. "When you're finished eating, get up and leave so the other people can get in. We've increased the seating, but we are still going to need people to eat and not linger."
The Oasis DFAC is open for breakfast from 5 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.; lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; and dinner opens at 5 p.m. and goes to 8:30 p.m. A midnight meal is also served from 11 p.m. until 1 a.m. A sandwich bar is open 24 hours a day.
| Date Taken: | 04.30.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 05.10.2010 06:26 |
| Story ID: | 49386 |
| Location: | CAMP VICTORY, IQ |
| Web Views: | 371 |
| Downloads: | 103 |
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