Two Installation Management Agency-Europe food service organizations in Germany were named the best in their respective categories Monday in the Department of the Army Philip A. Connelly Award Program.
The 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, at Hohenfels, won in the large garrison dining facility category, and Battery C, 6-52nd Air Defense Artillery Battalion in Katterbach, won best field kitchen, according to an IMA-Europe release.
Another facility, the 26th Area Support Group’s Any Mission Diner in Heidelberg, was a runner-up in the small garrison dining facility category.
The program recognizes the best in Army food service at the battalion, installation, major command and Army levels, according to the Army’s food service Web site (www.quartermaster.army.mil/aces).
The awards were named in honor of Connelly, a former president of the International Food Service Executives Association. The association and Department of the Army co-sponsor the awards, which started in March 1968, according to the Web site.
Evaluators visit the dining facilities and rate food preparation, sanitation, customer satisfaction and other areas.
Judges from the association and the U.S. Army Quartermaster Center and School at Fort Lee, Va., select a winner and runner-up for each category based on information from the evaluators, according to the Web site.
Recipients will accept their awards in a ceremony in San Diego in April, according to Michael Beldermann, an IMA-Europe spokesman.
Unlike other award programs that recognize excellence in military career fields, there is no Department of Defense-level of competition for food service excellence, Beldermann said.
