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Fort Knox, Ky. — Installation nutrition stakeholders are constantly aiming to maintain and improve the nutritional environment on post, an effort that recently earned Fort Knox an overall silver rating on its annual nutrition environment survey.
According to installation dietician Laura Bottoms, the Military Nutrition Environment Assessment Tool is used to survey the availability, convenience and budget friendliness of nutritious options at the post’s shoppettes, commissary, dining facilities, vending machines and other eateries.
“Nutrition is part of readiness,” said Bottoms. “A Soldier's diet directly affects their fitness, performance and long-term health. Our goal is to help installation stakeholders create an environment that promotes physical readiness by highlighting healthier choices where our service members and their Families live, work and shop.”
Using the resulting feedback from 2025’s survey, the installation nutrition working group made adjustments that led to a three-point score increase for 2026.
Bottoms said this was largely a result of the working group’s use of behavioral design.
“It’s a psychological trick we started using to make impulse buys the right buys,” she said.
The strategy redirects people’s attention so that when patrons visit an establishment, there are more healthy options in front of them. Where there used to be candy bar and soda displays at on-post locations, now sit fruit and “Go 4 Green” item displays.
Additionally, new and healthier items have been added and marked as “better for you” or “Go 4 Green” on menus across the community.
Because installation stakeholders worked to create and execute individual nutrition environment action plans, Bottoms said the installation earned a 71% silver score overall across 23 locations on post.
Both installation warrior restaurants, the Commissary and the community garden received gold ratings this year. Additionally, all three Army and Air Force Exchange Service express shops, Qdoba, Starbucks and Samuel Adams Brewhouse rated silver. The Patriot Commons and Houston Bowling Center’s Strike Zone earned bronze.
“People see bronze and think, ‘Oh, that's not that great,’ but not many places can say their bowling alley has healthy choices,” said Bottoms. “Sam Adams, a pub-style restaurant, was also able to improve their score through little tweaks that focused on behavioral design, like reworking their menus to highlight healthy options.”
Though Bottoms said the working group’s goal for the year was to earn a score of 65% and maintain last year’s bronze recognition, she was excited to learn they exceeded that goal when the installation nutrition environment earned silver. Her hope is that next year the installation will earn gold.
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| Date Taken: | 09.15.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 09.15.2026 09:39 |
| Story ID: | 574719 |
| Location: | FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 32 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Nutritional readiness: Fort Knox earns silver on annual mNEAT survey, by Savannah Baird, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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