King Hall Food Shortages

OldRetSWO said:
About 10 to 11 yrs ago, King Hall was under renovation and partially closed with the galleys opening and closing as the work went on.
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This was my firstie year. Most of the 1/C at each table did not eat or had very little to eat - we ate USMC style, making sure all of the younger classes had the food. The issue was raised up the MIDN chain of command until it reach the Commandant (then-CAPT Klein). She personally came to observe a couple of meals, but magically on those days, there were enough portions (not sure if it was coincidence or planned). The problem did not get fixed until the issue made the Washington Post and Baltimore Times, where MOCs read the articles, quickly followed by a phone call to the Supe. The day after the articles were published, we had double the portions for almost everything.

If the food shortages are true, the first course of action should be to address it with the chain of command, and hopefully it gets fixed. I would hate for the same result to occur from over a decade ago, where it took the press to institute a change.
 
I asked DD today and she said there is no issue. As a swimmer, she consumes mega calories. So I am inclined to believe that the food shortage is a bit overblown.
 
Mids do it to themselves. Mandatory meal is not enforced as it used to be. Half the brigade shows up for meals one week because they don't like the menus or whatever. King Hall adjusts, because they also have a responsibility to stay within their constraints and not waste ridiculous amounts of food. The whole brigade decides to show up the next week and wonders why the portions are halved.

This was brought up to the chain of command before, and King Hall gave the brigade the numbers--the answer is to show up to mandatory meal and for company 1/C to enforce the mandatory part of mandatory meal. The Commandant suggested revoking weekday liberty to reinstate mandatory meal throughout the week so King Hall could maintain a consistent number for meals, and the Brigade (of course) rejected that and collectively stopped complaining.

If some 30% of the Brigade chooses to order pizza or Nano's or go to Steerage, King Hall can't afford to just take a 30% loss every night. They count the number of people that sit down at meals, and if a company is regularly missing twelve people, they will cut an entire table's worth of food from that company. If those twelve people suddenly decide to show up for dinner for once, they will be SOL.

Not saying this is the current issue, but a few years ago there was this same kind of talk, and some scrutiny from folks not privy to the fine details of living in Bancroft.
 
That makes perfect sense.
 
Makes sense. I guess for us old timers, mandatory meals meant mandatory. Maybe that is why we didn’t have these issues. Our budget certainly wasn’t any greater. I understand the challenge the King Hall Suppos have. Trying to balance a challenging budget and adjust numbers so they do not waste food and money. I have eaten in King Hall over the years and it has improved dramatically.... King’s Court with soda machines, grab and go options are way more abundant, shelves of granola bars and snacks, lots more yogurt and fresh healthy options, much better salad bars, ice cream machines. None of this existed ‘back in the day.’ I think they are all great additions that I would of enjoyed, but I know all that costs money too. Agree, this is one of those items the chain of command needs to solve. If there isn’t enough food at a table the 1/C should be talking to the staff about what is available immediately. It’s their job as leaders to do this. 7+ months from now some of these 1/C are going to be on ships leading Sailors dealing with ship galleys, feeding their Sailors, ship budgets and resupply, etc
 
I thought this was an overblown, exaggerated situation until I talked to my MIDN last night. Surprised to see it a truth. Wonder why the issues this year and not last??

He said the way they are managing is via cutting the tables (as already discussed), so less waste. IOW, all the food is consumed at fewer tables VS leftovers at more tables. Also the result is 8 burgers for 12 MIDN, and 4 nuggets as a main course. Yes it’s true. I asked how he was adjusting and his answer was “lots of cereal and yogurt”. And he is a regular eater there as he isn’t supplemented by us for take out.

Hopefully it gets figured out soon, whatever the answer.

Don’t particularly care that they aren’t getting adequate (quantity/quality) occasionally. But a longer term issue bothers me. Which it’s been going on for a while now.

It’s always something I guess. Last year it was the record rains/leaking roofs/mold.....

Maybe we need a food drive for the Brigade? Send BACON ASAP!
 
Good .... we can keep this Thread going.

The mids can store packages of precooked bacon in their mini refrigerators .... Bacon is very resilient ... very long shelf life ... I love Costco Kirklands precooked bacon .... eat it on an unheated bagel every morning .... I eat it as a snack too in the evenings a lot.

Salted peanuts with fresh apples go a long way too .... I imagine that I am eating Reese’s Peanut butter cups when I have my salted peanuts and fresh apples .... It’s very healthy .... Peanut butter with Apples works too.
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I’ve read this with interest and hope it’s better at USMA, to which DS is applying. Especially because I bet highland falls delivery options aren’t quite as good and my DS eats like a horse. Do they have assigned seating? I thought that was how USMA did it. If so, I was wondering why they don’t make you toggle your attendance for all meals 24 hours in advance via whatever app they use. If you say you are attending and you don’t, it would be an issue.
 
The main reason mids seek food off the Yard is variety. The meals at USNA are recycled -- after a while, even the food you like gets old (figuratively, of course) and food you don't like gets really old. The food is fine but institutional food is never as good as home cooking or restaurant food and mids obviously crave things that aren't served at USNA.

It happened in our day -- there was a Burger King in DTA that was uniformly packed on Saturday afternoons. It happens today. It will happen in another decade and beyond.
 
All large [Corporate|Government] cafeterias recycle food .... Yesterday’s hot plate choices end up in today’s soup and pizza topping .... Been working for the same large Corp for 21 years .... different service contractor every few years .... same Cooked deal.
 
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Lots of mixed messages and reporting from the front lines here. I can only share my opinion and no inside information.
The services and their respective chain of command in today’s world put their service members welfare as a top priority. This especially means adequate rations in garrison and the field. It will not always been deemed adequate or of quality by those it gets fed too, but I digress. As far as budget goes, the money is there, and I don’t believe the other Academies budget $5 more per Cadet per day as was earlier claimed, well AF maybe 😀, but it’s likely more of a management issue if anything. On occasion the management needs to be changed, and working the appropriate CoC is the process for change.
Imagine trying to guess how many mouths you have to feed for supper tonight at your house? Now in their case it could be 500-4000. It’s the food service departments job to figure it out, and it seems that overall they’ve done a pretty good job in all these years. No one has been reported as malnourished and in need of medical attention related to inadequacy of the quality or quantity of food at the dining halls of any SA. However supplements are often administered from outside the gates....
 
This thread is disappointing to me, not because of the reports of food shortages but rather that it reinforces my observation last year that Wardrooom style meals are no longer a part of the program. USNA is sounding more and more like a college every day. (Rant over....as someone noted on the Class Facebook page, we have become the DOG's (disgruntled old grads) that we laughed about when they tried to sneak into Bancroft during Homecoming weekends).

It sounds to me like this is as much a leadership/asset management issue than a budget issue. As '85 notes, the menus are repetitive, and it should be able to be able to predict with some accuracy how many Midshipman will attend each meal.. some meals have always been more popular than others (Z-burgers and Mexican Meal > Neeb's loaf (don't ask !). That said, if waste is the problem, I'm sure someone could write the app that allows Midshipman to select which meals they will attend in the next week.

Dr. Strange Love said:
The mids can store packages of precooked bacon in their mini refrigerators
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>Their mini refrigerators ???? Please don't tell me that Midshipmen can have a refrigerator in their room ?
 
Old Navy BGO said:
This thread is disappointing to me, not because of the reports of food shortages but rather that it reinforces my observation last year that Wardrooom style meals are no longer a part of the program. USNA is sounding more and more like a college every day. (Rant over....as someone noted on the Class Facebook page, we have become the DOG's (disgruntled old grads) that we laughed about when they tried to sneak into Bancroft during Homecoming weekends).

It sounds to me like this is as much a leadership/asset management issue than a budget issue. As '85 notes, the menus are repetitive, and it should be able to be able to predict with some accuracy how many Midshipman will attend each meal.. some meals have always been more popular than others (Z-burgers and Mexican Meal > Neeb's loaf (don't ask !). That said, if waste is the problem, I'm sure someone could write the app that allows Midshipman to select which meals they will attend in the next week.


>Their mini refrigerators ???? Please don't tell me that Midshipmen can have a refrigerator in their room ?
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Nope for mine and his buddies. Maybe the comment was meant for the wardroom fridge? BUT, that bacon would be gone faster than snow in Texas.
 
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The NAPSter dorm rooms in Ripley Hall [Newport] all have mini refrigerators .... I am under the impression that Bancroft has the same provisions.
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I believe some Mids rate fridges now. Current Mid can clarify... firsties and 2/C? Or all but Plebes?
 
Over the last 20 years it’s changed from 1/c only, to anyone who got a chit saying they had special dietary needs. Once that happened, the barn door was wide open. Not sure what the actual policy is now.
 
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