80% of Fire Caterers are nothing but cheats and scammers. You can put whatever you want in the contract, they’ll find a way to do it for lowest cost possible and they’ll continue to serve HIGHLY processed and HIGHLY preserved food as cheaply as possible. They are contractors - a business, they only care about profit, not providing good, clean, healthy, nutrient dense foods…. They will find every loophole in the contract where they can cut corners and shave costs…. I’ve been in fire for 26 years, I’ve been told numerous times, “the catering contracts are changing”, “ the lunches are going to be better now”, “the breakfasts will be better”, “the dinners are going to be better”…. It’s still the same crap, they just call it by another name or package it differently…. The year I go the entire season without eating a single fork of powdered eggs is the year I retire! I guess I’ll die in the food line when I’m 91 years old because it will NEVER happen!!!
Some of the best food I’ve had at fires has been provided by state run fires because some of them often use inmate crews to do the cooking, serving, packaging, cleaning…. Low cost labor allows you to spend more on quality food…
Hence why I said 80%…. Not all are bad, but the vast majority are profit driven and care little to nothing about providing a quality meal. You want productive firefighters on the line? It’s a simple 3 tier solution.
1. Pay them well…. Check
2. Feed them high quality, nutrient dense foods…. Still waiting….
3. Provide adequate quality sleep…. Still waiting…..
If only "regular" people could eat like this. They've figured out the new food pyramid for the masses.
We're all in favor of feeding the firefighters well. Malnourished, hungry firefighters cannot operate at peak performance. But we'd be interested, from a taxpayer perspective, how much more this new policy will cost.
I spent many years as a Food UL, Log chief, etc but have been retired a long time now. It's really interesting to see what the new contract specs look like. But just like all contracts, it needs strong admin.
80% of Fire Caterers are nothing but cheats and scammers. You can put whatever you want in the contract, they’ll find a way to do it for lowest cost possible and they’ll continue to serve HIGHLY processed and HIGHLY preserved food as cheaply as possible. They are contractors - a business, they only care about profit, not providing good, clean, healthy, nutrient dense foods…. They will find every loophole in the contract where they can cut corners and shave costs…. I’ve been in fire for 26 years, I’ve been told numerous times, “the catering contracts are changing”, “ the lunches are going to be better now”, “the breakfasts will be better”, “the dinners are going to be better”…. It’s still the same crap, they just call it by another name or package it differently…. The year I go the entire season without eating a single fork of powdered eggs is the year I retire! I guess I’ll die in the food line when I’m 91 years old because it will NEVER happen!!!
Some of the best food I’ve had at fires has been provided by state run fires because some of them often use inmate crews to do the cooking, serving, packaging, cleaning…. Low cost labor allows you to spend more on quality food…
There are some really good caterers out there. Not all of them, but there are very solid caterers.
Myers is Utah was probably the best state caterer I had.
Hence why I said 80%…. Not all are bad, but the vast majority are profit driven and care little to nothing about providing a quality meal. You want productive firefighters on the line? It’s a simple 3 tier solution.
1. Pay them well…. Check
2. Feed them high quality, nutrient dense foods…. Still waiting….
3. Provide adequate quality sleep…. Still waiting…..
It’s not rocket science!
If only "regular" people could eat like this. They've figured out the new food pyramid for the masses.
We're all in favor of feeding the firefighters well. Malnourished, hungry firefighters cannot operate at peak performance. But we'd be interested, from a taxpayer perspective, how much more this new policy will cost.
At long last!
I spent many years as a Food UL, Log chief, etc but have been retired a long time now. It's really interesting to see what the new contract specs look like. But just like all contracts, it needs strong admin.
Sounds good to me, let's see how it shakes out.
UFSF R3
i was holding out for better B&G policy. but i just freeking love good Biscuits and Gravy.