NOVEMBER 21, 2024 – As Thanksgiving nears, while most are still dreaming of turkey and stuffing, workers at Army dining facilities – known as warrior restaurants – work tirelessly to make those visions a reality for Soldiers stationed around the world. For these culinary teams, Thanksgiving is about more than just a meal; it’s an opportunity to serve Soldiers a taste of home and a sense of belonging.
ASC oversees around 185 warrior restaurants, also called military dining facilities or DFACs, located worldwide. ASC is responsible for providing Soldiers with the essential supplies they need, including clothing, weapons, drones and food.
“We cover all sourcing and serving of food items to Soldiers that live in the barracks,” said Chontrelle Sturdivant, installation food manager at Fort Cavazos, Texas. Soldiers in barracks are typically those that are newer to the Army and don’t have spouses or families living with them. This means, unless they can travel home, they won’t be sitting around their family’s table for a Thanksgiving meal.
On a typical day, Sturdivant said around 500 Soldiers are fed at each dining facility at Fort Cavazos. For Thanksgiving, the number of meals jumps to around 950.
“In the food service community, this is our Super Bowl,” said Gregory Joell, installation food program manager at Fort Carson, Colorado’s Army Field Support Battalion-Carson. “It gives us an opportunity to showcase our skills.”
Months of planning go into each meal. Staff members decide on themes, perfect recipes, and even learn skills like ice carving to add a special touch. Themes are often kept secret until the ‘big reveal’ the day of when each facility is judged as part of a friendly competition.
“It takes a lot of time and effort to plan, search for items, order, identify the right individual to assign a project, create menus, pull recipe cards and generate diagrams,” explained Kresassidy McKinney, chief culinary management sergeant major at Fort Cavazos. “Many Soldiers are miles away from home and family, so being able to prepare and create space to give thanks is honoring.”
At Fort Carson, more than 200 facility workers start preparing and cooking the night before meals are served. A shift of culinary specialists works from dusk until dawn to produce the biggest meal of the year. “A lot of folks don’t see that because all they know, and what they see when they come in, is everything is already done,” Joell said.
Sturdivant echoed this experience at Fort Cavazos. “They do 24-hour operations in preparation for Thanksgiving. They’re working behind the scenes until the doors open to everyone, but no one even knows they were up. They’re cooking turkeys at three in the morning while everyone else is at home.”
Visitors to warrior restaurants will see extravagant displays, from cornucopia and ice sculptures to cakes and desserts made from scratch. Traditional dishes like turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes are served alongside prime rib and roasted pig. Each facility competes for the best theme – ranging from kid’s movies to superheroes – and presentation.
Over Sturdivant’s 22 years as a Soldier and now as a Civilian, all in the culinary field, she’s witnessed the sense of family and friendship firsthand. “When Soldiers come in, you can see the excitement and richness of tradition on their faces. You can see how their eyes brighten when they come into the dining facility.”
Others shared the same sentiment of the Thanksgiving experience across the Army. “Being that Soldier who came in 23 years ago as Private Knuckles, then Specialist Knuckles, and now up to Sergeant Major Knuckles – it’s being able to be in that community, prepare meals for Soldiers that are away from home, and allowing them to still be a part of a family and having that camaraderie, that team, as you’re prepping the Thanksgiving meal,” said Sgt. Maj. Kendra Knuckles, G4 (Logistics) food service sergeant major at Fort Carson.
“As the culinary specialists and the culinary non-commissioned officer that gets to be in the kitchen with Soldiers and your team, preparing that meal for Soldiers gives that gratitude because you’re giving back.”
Joell has been involved with Army food for 40 years as both a Soldier and Civilian and recommends any Soldiers that will be going through the holiday without family reach out to their Army family.
“A lot of Soldiers are going to be under the same circumstances, the same boat, that they’re away from home,” Joell said. “We know the holidays are always hard, and it’s hard being away from home during holidays. So sit in one of our warrior restaurants, enjoy a great meal, and meet a possibly great friend.”
Joell said it’s not just current Soldiers that benefit at Fort Carson. “A lot of retirees like to come in and serve or just walk around and interact with the Soldiers. It gives them that sense of warm and fuzziness they had when they were serving our great country.”
Fort Cavazos also opens to more than Soldiers. Civilians, Family members, and veterans are all welcome on Thanksgiving.
“I love when I see Soldiers that bring their family members in,” Sturdivant said. “Their spouses and children don’t know what a dining facility is or how their Soldier eats outside of their home, so for them to be in that atmosphere and really see how these dining facilities transition during the holidays for them, to me, that is really exciting.”
In fact, Sturdivant said her own family made visiting warrior restaurants a part of their Thanksgiving tradition, albeit unintentionally. “Because I was a food service warrant officer, they knew every Thanksgiving they were going to be at the dining facility. My family would come to my dining facility to eat and enjoy that environment with the Soldiers, and then we would have our traditional Thanksgiving at home. They would ask, ‘Mom, what do you do?’ I would try to explain to them what I do, and then when they would come to the dining facility and see everything, they would say ‘Oh, ok, this is what you do.'”
“My experience is long hours, but at the end of the day, it’s heartwarming to just be able to provide this type of service,” Joell said. “As a manager and also being in the food service arena previously as a Soldier, the opportunity just to see the joy in their faces as they leave our facility – that we have satisfied their need even with them being away from their home – that they have a sense of Thanksgiving.”
Joell said Fort Carson feeds thousands of meals on site, but also donate thousands more on Thanksgiving to community partners for those in need. Those partners serve food on their sites or deliver to those that can’t leave their homes. It’s a tradition unique to Fort Carson that has been going on for nearly three decades, and a part of what makes the work worth it to Joell and others at Fort Carson.
Regardless of who is receiving the food, Knuckles said the sentiment is the same for each person who takes a bite.
“Even though you’re away from home, we want to welcome you to the family and feed you like you were sitting at your grandma’s table.”
By Kelly Haertjens