Test for Retirees to use Dining Facil...

Author Message   Cherry C. Senior Member Username: Cherry Post Number: 6434 Registered: 06-2003 Posted From: 71.163.18.160 Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 - 12:20 pm:    There have been several threads both here and in the Off Topic forum on this new program for the last several months, starting with the first announcement in February or March. Unfortunately, it seems that the local base commander has the last word on WHEN that privilege will be available at his or her own base, and some have been dragging their feet. We do know for sure that the dining facility at Travis, the Sierra Inn, is fully open to retirees and their dependents. (The manager there loves us -- or did when we chatted in early March; I sure hope nobody has misbehaved and thus changed her attitude!) Does anyone have first-hand information on which of the others may now be in compliance?   Arne Roe Member Username: Ret_masterchief Post Number: 13 Registered: 06-2003 Posted From: 76.22.76.60 Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 - 06:08 am:    According to "R&R Travel News", Retirees at six Air Force bases will soon be able to use military food service establishments previously reserved for active-duty Airmen. The six Air Force Bases participating in the initiative are Elmendorf AFB, AK; Patrick AFB, FL; MacDill AFB, FL; Fairchild AFB, WA; Little Rock AFB, AR; and Travis AFB, CA. The Feb. 25, 2010 "E-Snapshot" newsletter at Travis AFB printed: RETIREES You are invited to dine at Sierra Inn Dining Facility on any day for any meal. We look forward to serving you. http://www.retirees.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123200582 This will help make Space-A travel easier to do, while increasing the enjoyability factor. THIS IS GREAT NEWS!!!   TOM Member Username: Tomeliz Post Number: 12 Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 99.58.72.216 Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 06:36 pm:    One step forward one step back........ Now that retirees are allowed to eat in the Travis dining facility, the Hospital dining room is not allowing the retirees to eat there unless they are visiting a patient , are there for an appointment or other official purpose. I am not sure how they will enforce this rule. The memorandum referenced IAW DoD 1338.10-M,Manual for the DoD Food Service Program, DoD Financial Regulation 7000.14-R, and AFMAN 44-144. Having the hospital as a backup dining facility was nice because you could take the city bus in bad weather. TOM   JIM QUINN Member Username: Jbquinn1 Post Number: 23 Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 173.12.55.135 Posted on Saturday, May 15, 2010 - 10:30 pm:    i used mcguire's dining facility today.   Barry Cantor Senior Member Username: Barry_c Post Number: 997 Registered: 06-2003 Posted From: 66.194.158.66 Posted on Monday, April 26, 2010 - 12:41 am:    The test has been approved by Air Force Services Agency in Texas. Now, each wing commander at the designated test bases will decide if they can support it. Remember, each wing commander has a budget and depending upon the "potential audience" is there enough money in the budget to be able to provide the service. For example, there are 15-20 thousand retiree's in and around Patrick AFB, FL. How much food per day are you going to prepare without knowing how many are going to show up??? 1st requirement is to feed those military personel on base who use the dinning hall. Then, how many retirees will come thru the door. It's not that easy to figure it out. You can't justify the service if you end up throwing away food every day for those no-shows. Just my 4 cents worth. I don't envey the wing commander or the food service officer in coming to grips with this problem. And believe me....The occasional Thanksgiving and Christmas meal I've eaten in the PAFB dinning hall (which incidently won the Space Command Hennesy trophy this year) was excellent and a great value for the money.   JOHN M. NETTLE Intermediate Member Username: Sail_on Post Number: 89 Registered: 09-2007 Posted From: 12.11.239.226 Posted on Sunday, April 25, 2010 - 02:36 pm:    Good morning, It's Sunday, 25 April and I had just eaten breakfast at Travis AFB galley. Just walked in, ordered my food, showed my I.D. card and the cost was $3.80. Food was very good. The walk from the Inn took about 5 minutes. Good exercise! Anyway, I would eat a meal there again when next at Travis. JOHN . . . Mesquite, Nevada   Earl Senior Member Username: Myramstein Post Number: 747 Registered: 11-2007 Posted From: 83.55.173.98 Posted on Sunday, April 25, 2010 - 11:59 am:    this may be posted somewhere on the board: Retirees, family members, etc can now eat in the galley at Rota ONLY on weekends and holidays. Was surprised to meet retirees at Rota who did not know of this change in policy. Hopefully, they will add M-F. pray. I ate there Sat and Sun.   rinaldo Senior Member Username: Rinaldo Post Number: 1052 Registered: 06-2003 Posted From: 173.169.151.24 Posted on Sunday, April 25, 2010 - 11:32 am:    Snagged from another Group by 1st Lt. Gina Vaccaro McKeen Air Force Personnel Center Public Affairs RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFRNS) – Thanks to the Air Force’s Food Transformation Initiative, retirees at six bases will soon be able to use military food service establishments previously reserved for active-duty Airmen. Retirees will pay the same market price as everyone else, and there will not be an added surcharge on top of the menu price. The six Air Force bases participating in the initiative are Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, Patrick AFB, Fla., MacDill AFB, Fla., Fairchild AFB, Wash., Little Rock AFB, Ark., and Travis AFB, Calif. This pilot program not only opens food establishments to all members of the base community, but customers will also see changes to food and beverage options, resulting in greater quality and variety, said Air Force Services Agency officials. Diners will see an overall increase in the variety and availability of healthy menu options on base. With FTI, the Air Force is changing the way it delivers food in order to meet the needs of today's Airmen. For the past 60 years, the Air Force has been feeding Airmen based on a much larger, more stationary force. With the transition to a smaller, expeditionary force, Air Force leaders are looking to make dining programs more flexible, available, and efficient. "FTI is about Airmen and for Airmen," said Brian Floyd, the deputy director of the force support squadron at Travis Air Force Base, one of the pilot bases for this initiative. "We have heard loud and clear what our Airmen want, and FTI is all about offering them better quality food, more variety and a sense of community when dining." FTI will reinvigorate Air Force dining by hiring a contractor to transition to hybrid facilities on bases that will be open to the entire base populace, much like common business and university campuses, services officials said. Many base dining facilities have use rates of less than 50 percent. Instead of closing these facilities, Air Force plans call for transforming operations. This transformation will preserve the mission of providing meals to Airmen and bringing positive changes to the way Airmen are fed on base, services agency officials said. While services officials are excited about the forthcoming changes, they emphasized things will not happen immediately and that each base will be different. The first phase of the program is about improving menu options, they said, and the total transformation will take time. Opening the transformed dining venues to retirees and base employees will restore a sense of community because everyone will be able to eat together, Mr. Floyd said. "Now all of these groups of people will be able to share quality food in a family type of atmosphere at the dining hall as well as at other food venues on base," he explained. ---   dinotars Senior Member Username: Dinotars Post Number: 6591 Registered: 06-2003 Posted From: 173.169.151.24 Posted on Thursday, April 22, 2010 - 02:58 pm:    MacDill AFB Dining Facility has not implemented the test program for retired personnel as yet.Possibly in October 2010.   Wanda Seals Senior Member Username: Whstravel Post Number: 707 Registered: 07-2007 Posted From: 69.153.6.74 Posted on Thursday, April 22, 2010 - 03:27 am:    Larry, Sorry about my posting. I should have taken the time to provide the info better. Long story - won't try to explain. Use Gardner's link. Ciao/Wanda   Carole G Intermediate Member Username: Greengal Post Number: 61 Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 68.205.151.181 Posted on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 11:37 pm:    Spoke with Patrick AFB dining people today. They have not implemented the retiree dining program here yet. It was stated that it could be a year before it starts here. It has to be approved by the wing commander even though they are one of the test sites per the food service officer.   mike~p Senior Member Username: In_japan Post Number: 513 Registered: 06-2003 Posted From: 67.119.12.41 Posted on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 06:36 pm:    Dinotars, I don't think it was delayed but rather some bases have yet to implement.   kenneth e ferguson Member Username: Cyberg Post Number: 29 Registered: 02-2007 Posted From: 207.104.148.67 Posted on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 04:43 pm:    I'm at the Westwind at Travis and I've been eating at the chow hall for the last three days guten apa-teet!   dinotars Senior Member Username: Dinotars Post Number: 6584 Registered: 06-2003 Posted From: 173.169.151.24 Posted on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 11:02 am:    If the test program is delayed we need an update by those who published the original notice.   Bob Dart Senior Member Username: Bobdart Post Number: 1485 Registered: 06-2005 Posted From: 76.29.20.95 Posted on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 03:29 am:    From my recollection this article is the same as the original article of several weeks ago or a little longer. Sounds like they're a little late in reporting their own news.   Bob Dart Senior Member Username: Bobdart Post Number: 1481 Registered: 06-2005 Posted From: 76.29.20.95 Posted on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 02:27 am:    The pilot in the pilot program must be on leave   Dakota Ray Senior Member Username: Rhammer Post Number: 428 Registered: 05-2007 Posted From: 69.62.147.217 Posted on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 01:47 am:    This may be the article that Wanda was trying to pass. It is dated today!! http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123200600   Larry W. Carnes Senior Member Username: Larry Post Number: 1130 Registered: 06-2003 Posted From: 63.20.125.168 Posted on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 01:02 am:    I DO have a Yahoo account. Unfortunately, all this link does is take me to my own Inbox.   Mike/Clivia Sizemore Member Username: Chiefmike Post Number: 25 Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 71.3.78.144 Posted on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 - 11:40 pm:    We spent the night at MacDill on Sunday April 11. I asked at the AF Inn about retirees eating in the dining hall and was told "no, only special days". Monday morning I called the dining hall and was told "not at this time" Clivia   Leland Senior Member Username: Leland Post Number: 6129 Registered: 05-2006 Posted From: 98.218.147.237 Posted on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 - 10:38 pm:    This has been discussed repeatedly. For fairly recent entries (not requiring payment) see, for instance: <http://www.pepperd.com/spacea/messages/2/662739.html> and <http://www.pepperd.com/spacea/messages/7731/662935.html>   steve mccoy Member Username: Nuhusker Post Number: 45 Registered: 04-2009 Posted From: 173.27.221.113 Posted on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 - 10:11 pm:    Wanda, do I have to have a Yahoo account just to view/read the email link?   R. Gardner Junior Member Username: Gardner Post Number: 6 Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 24.143.108.212 Posted on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 - 10:03 pm:    Pilot program will allow retirees at six bases to use military food service establishments previously reserved for active-duty Airmen. The six Air Force bases participating in the initiative are Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, Patrick AFB, Fla., MacDill AFB, Fla., Fairchild AFB, Wash., Little Rock AFB, Ark., and Travis AFB, Calif. See details at: http://www.retirees.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123200582   Wanda Seals Senior Member Username: Whstravel Post Number: 703 Registered: 07-2007 Posted From: 71.42.210.170 Posted on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 - 09:26 pm:    Just hot this AF Retiree news email. Check it out. http://us.mc1103.mail.yahoo.com/mc/welcome?.gx=1&.tm=1271802092&.rand=5rmelmbt2p gkm#_pg=showMessage&sMid=0&&filterBy=&.rand=1321667617&midIndex=0&mid=1_180798_A NUIw0MAAN3PS83cdQGHsGz5pzM&f=1&fromId=afpc.retiree@randolph.af.mil&m=1_180798_ANUIw0MAAN3PS83cdQGHsGz5pzM,1_173900_ANQIw0MAAL%2BrS 8nXlwd34mcypkM,1_171091_AMoIw0MAAV8qS8i9RgVRrgSC4cY,1_161000_AM4Iw0MAAOO1S8YWjAu 9rG1KcJQ,1_155884_AMoIw0MAAEYDS8UDHwp2e3avSfI,1_153940_ANUIw0MAAWq1S8SglwYNklnCV Z8,&sort=date&order=down&startMid=0&hash=5bf25e48a9c4febda7b59375cf8fee58&.jsran d=6810509 Ciao/Wanda