PHILADELPHIA - Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support ensured troops eating at a new NATO dining facility in Afghanistan have a taste of home when the first shipment of American food was delivered there April 23.
U.S. service members who eat with allied forces at the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency dining facility at Kabul International Airport had told food service advisers they wanted more American-styled foods on the menu, Tim Schmidt, a contracting officer and the DLA Troop Support Europe and Africa customer support operations team lead, said. Schmidt’s team, based in Kaiserslautern, Germany, facilitated the planning and execution of the delivery.
The subsistence team arranged for NAMSA to receive the supplies from a DLA prime vendor’s warehouse in Kabul, Todd Lutz, a tailored vendor logistics specialist, said. In the future, the vendor will deliver food supplies to the new dining facility on an average of three times per week.
American troops operating from NATO military bases will have access to the same foods found at U.S. military dining facilities.
In an effort to accommodate the American service members serving in Kabul, DLA Troop Support has made available to them the same 28-day menu the U.S. Army uses, Schmidt said.
DLA Troop Support officials have received positive feedback from troops dining at other NAMSA facilities in Afghanistan that already have the new menu.
“[The troops] love it and want more of it,” Schmidt said.