Keesler wins top Air Force award in food service

Published April 9, 2010
By News Staff
81st Training Wing

Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. -- Keesler has won the Air Force's John L. Hennessy Award as the top food service operation in the Air Force in the multiple facility category.

The Hennessy Award is based on the entire scope of the food service program. Keesler has won the award five times, most recently in 2004.

The dining facilities serve about 2 million meals annually -- about 6,500 a day. The three facilities -- Azalea, Live Oak, and Magnolia -- offer daily snack specials, world cuisine lunches, "grab-and-go" meals, signature sandwiches and vegetarian items. The Azalea opened in 2001 in the Triangle Area for non-prior service students and can feed 1,500 people per meal.

The facility houses the flight kitchen which prepares more than 250 meals per month and the central preparation kitchen where over 350,000 pounds of produce and 125,000 servings of various meat items are processed and prepared annually.

An evaluation team representing the Air Force Services Agency and the food service industry evaluated Keesler's food operations in February. This is the 54th year for the single and multiple facility category.