After facing criticism for its meals last year, a Fort Carson official said the base has made changes and is soliciting more feedback to better serve soldiers.
Lt. Col. Sarah Gilbert, assistant chief of staff for sustainment, said the base has opened all its dining facilities for weeknight dining for consistency and a survey is available to all customers to provide feedback. The comments will be reviewed at monthly food service governance meetings to help guide decisions, she said.
Previously, the Fort Carson dining facility selected to serve dinner rotated on a monthly basis and that created confusion, Gilbert said. Since Jan. 6, all the dining facilities have started serving breakfast, lunch and dinner on weekdays. Demand is also up, potentially in line with nearly all soldiers being home from training.
“We are cooking more. We have seen an uptick in diners in the facilities,” she said.
On weekends, three grab-and-go kiosks offer salads, sandwiches and microwavable meals on Fort Carson, while the dining facilities are closed.
Soldiers shared complaints about both options on Hots and Cots, a social media platform, last year saying the quantity and quality of food was insufficient. Military.com, a national news source, highlighted some of those complaints, including a dinner consisting of lima beans and toast in late November.
Gilbert said part of the problem came from inconsistent dining trends, where far more soldiers would show up for dinner than cooks expected. The facilities can make more food, but there is typically a lag time of about 15 to 20 minutes to prepare it.
She expects keeping all the dining facilities open for dinner will help the base more accurately gauge how many people are going to come to dinner. Leadership has also asked soldiers in the kitchens to proactively manage inventory and start cooking more of a certain item, if it is running low, she said.
The overall number of people dining on post is also likely to be high in the next few months because most units are at home after the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team returned from Europe in December.
The base served an average of 54,505 meals per month in 2024. Those who are most reliant on dining facilities and kiosks are typically junior enlisted soldiers who live in the barracks.
The Fort Carson kiosks could see an additional variety in food options soon when the Defense Logistics Agency starts helping to stock them, Gilbert said. Right now, only the Defense Commissary Agency is responsible for stocking the kiosks and an additional supplier should help with options.
“We will see some significant additions as early as this spring,” she said.
In the long term, Fort Carson could get one of the new dining facilities Army Materiel Command is planning that will be inspired by modern college campus dining. Campus dining halls at times provide substantial variety. One of the dining halls at the University of Colorado Boulder has eight micro restaurants, according to its website.
A recently released call for proposals asks contractors to remodel buildings and staff the facilities while allowing them to provide meals outside of identified military service recipes. The request for proposal from Army Material Command identified the Robert C. Stack Ivy Warrior Restaurant on Fort Carson as a potential site for the new dining hall.
As the Army works to modernize dining, Gilbert said, she expects traditional dining facilities will persist.
“I think the Army is trying to understand soldiers’ desires and get them healthy food in a variety of ways,” she said.
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