Enlisted soldiers forced to pay for food or starve at installation after food runs out

By Andy Wolf

The food supply has been unable to meet soldiers’ demand, following the introduction of kiosks to offset the number of closing dining facilities at Fort Carson, Colorado.

The self-serve style Kiosks, which feature ready-made food packaged for a quick grab-and-go affair, were designed to make up for the lack of DFAC attendance on weekends.

Many soldiers were unimpressed with the kiosks, comparing the kind of fare offered as being akin to “gas station food.”

To make matters worse, the kiosks could not reliably feed personnel over the weekend, and many were left to scrounge for food elsewhere on their own dime as a result of shortages.

Fort Carson officials “acknowledge there was a food shortage at the kiosks over the weekend, and sincerely apologize to the soldiers who were impacted,” Lt. Col. Joey Payton, 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson spokesperson, told Army Times in a statement. “We were caught off guard with the amount of soldiers that are choosing to use the kiosk.”

It has been suggested that the shortage of supplies is due to the low DFAC attendance numbers that were counted at a time when many Fort Carson troops were deployed.

“Since the first week of kiosk operations, we have seen an increase in kiosk usage each weekend and ultimately served approximately 1,850 meals this past weekend,” Payton said.

For those who are forced to pay out of pocket over the weekend, Payton has urged soldiers to seek reimbursement from their units.

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“We strongly encourage soldiers who were impacted to submit a missed meal voucher with their units so that they may be reimbursed,” he said.

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