COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Columbus Air Force Base is one of four installations chosen to be a test site for a new Department of Defense program called the Smart Fueling Initiative, a program aimed toward providing Airmen with healthier eating options by making those options more convenient, accessible and financially friendly.
A team from the Department of Defense visited the base Aug. 28-31 to assess possible implementations and needs in order to move forward with the initiative.
The other installations involved in the program are Scott AFB, Illinois; U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado; and MacDill AFB, Florida.
“We are here to help provide better fueling options for the Airmen and their families,” said Debbie Karnes, a DOD contractor. “We are taking the demographics of where the Airmen are living and working and trying to come up with a way to get them a source of healthy food.”
The team visited multiple locations on and off base to map food locations in relation to where Airmen and personnel work and live.
On base, they visited each place that had food and beverages and also looked at what type of product was being sold.
The team also visited the enlisted and officer unaccompanied dormitories. They observed the cooking areas to analyze what types of food could possibly be prepared.
The team got a good idea of the work schedules of most Airmen on base. They focused on the pilot training mission and saw how long the student and instructor pilots work.
“The pilot training mission involves long days of training which in turn makes cooking or preparing healthy meals a challenge,” said Kenneth Sorg, Chief of Strategic Planning for the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. “Our job is to make eating healthy easier and more convenient.”
During the last day of their visit, the team briefed Col. Douglas Gosney, 14th Flying Training Wing Commander. Scott Pollack, a government contractor hired to aid in the mapping of the populous versus food locations, presented Gosney multiple maps, which showed food locations in relation to Airmen and also went over which locations made more profit.
“One of the biggest challenges is convenience,” Pollack said. “If we can fix that problem, the next step is providing healthy alternatives in the places where it is most convenient.”
The team will continue to gather information from the other three installations. The team will collect more data, work with stakeholders, incorporate feedback, issue a final action plan and schedule and implement initiatives.