Photo By Eric Franklin | Leaders from Fort Cavazos cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the Phantom...... read more read more
ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Ill. – Feeding hundreds of hungry Soldiers healthy, well-balanced meals every day takes planning. Operating costs, supplies, equipment, quality assurance, regulatory guidance, and keeping facilities up to Army standards are all the responsibility of the installation food program manager – a position on any Army base with dining facilities.
The U.S. Army Sustainment Command oversees about 185 “Warrior Restaurants” – also called dining facilities or DFACS – around the world. Fort Cavazos, Texas, is the home to 10 of those. ASC is responsible for providing Soldiers with the essentials including clothing, weapons, drones and food.
Chontrelle Sturdivant is the face behind the installation food program manager position at Fort Cavazos. She is part of the 407th Army Field Support Battalion-Cavazos, overseen by ASC. For more than two decades, Sturdivant has served in the culinary field for the Army – first as a Soldier, now a Civilian. Additionally, Sturdivant oversees the three culinary outpost food trucks and three culinary outpost kiosks at Fort Cavazos, known as “The Great Place.”
The sheer geographical size of Fort Cavazos can be overwhelming for newcomers. Spanning nearly 215,000 acres – that's about the size of San Antonio, Texas – the geography presents a challenge for Sturdivant's position and the number of people to feed. As of 2023, Fort Cavazos in Texas had nearly 39,000 active-duty military personnel.
"It definitely causes a strain in our ability to provide food service resources directly where the Soldiers are," she said, adding that maintenance, serviceability and staffing of the dining facilities play a role into whether they're open at any given time. Sturdivant said, on average, 500 Soldiers are fed at DFACs daily.
Sgt. Maj. Kresassidy McKinney works alongside Sturdivant as the chief culinary management sergeant major. Together, they support communications related to food services and collaborate for solutions and improvements for feeding Soldiers.
“Her role as the installation food program manager is crucial,” McKinney said. “She is the key driver of improvement, support and change. Her oversight is essential to ensure that food service programs and policies are followed, and she serves as the voice at each level, advocating for the needs and resources necessary to achieve success.”
“Ms. Sturdivant and I have achieved a great deal over the past year,” McKinney said. “We started this journey around the same time, and as we work together to improve the food program, we aim to inspire change by encouraging those in leadership roles to embrace the care and passion needed for the craft. This will help ensure that our younger culinarians receive the training and guidance necessary to grow and succeed.”
In fact, they’ve been working hard to bring life to new ways for Soldiers to eat other than in the dining facilities.
"We implemented new initiatives within the last year that have been highly received from our diners, which are the headquarters DA (Department of the Army) action station and menus," Sturdivant said. "We incorporated a food court-like concept into the dining facilities.”
Sturdivant said it makes the space more welcoming and provides more options for diners, as well as helping them select their menu option faster than a traditional facility allows. Sturdivant says acrylic signs, graphic art, lighting and more make the space visually appealing and highlights menu selections within the serving area.
With the changes, they've also been able to add more variety to the menu, taking feedback from diners and adjusting offerings provide customer preferred menu options. The changes have skyrocketed utilization rates. For example, Sturdivant said they've gone from a 37 percent to 100 percent utilization rate at the Black Jack dining facility and from 69 percent to 127 percent at the Theodore Roosevelt facility within the last year.
A Phantom Centralized Hub was also launched last year. It offers a fresh area, which is a “grab and go”-type concept where Soldiers can get freshly-made salads, subs, fruit, parfaits, cheese sticks, and yogurt if they don’t have time to sit down for a more formal meal or want to skip any lines.
"We also have Phantom Prep, which is our installation meal prep program," Sturdivant explained. "It is our first time launching the program throughout Fort Cavazos.”
Phantom Prep allows Soldiers to order their meal prep online and choose what options they want. The culinary specialists then receive the orders, prepare them, and get them ready for pickup. Pick up days are every Tuesday and Thursday, which gives time for prepping them on Mondays and Wednesdays. It’s a strategy to make sure food service resources are available to Soldiers outside of the traditional dining facility times, and so far, it’s been highly successful. Sturdivant said they originally started at about 150 meals per pick up, but that's dramatically increased to 425.
Phantom Prep has beef, chicken, pork loin and tofu options for protein, whole grain brown rice, white rice, steamed noodles, and vegetables for the side, and 22 various sauces to pick from. Sturdivant said she felt it was important to have vegetarian options, and that menu option has paid off. "One of our highest sellers is actually one of our vegetarian entrees, which is the pad Thai tofu. It's extremely popular with a lot of our vegetarian Soldiers."
Sturdivant works tirelessly to make the food program and quality of life better for Soldiers at Fort Cavazos. She takes her job as an installation food program manager seriously, and it shines through when she proudly talks about the changes they've made. Her end goal is to improve the quality of life of Soldiers through the food program by promoting healthy and customer preferred food options, whether that's in a DFAC or out in the field.
| Date Taken: | 02.18.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.18.2025 15:20 |
| Story ID: | 490969 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 57 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Fort Cavazos’ food planners keep personnel nutritionally fed, by Kelly Haertjens, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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