Loaves of bread, fresh from the oven, move along a conveyer belt on their way to be sliced and packaged. “The toughest challenge is the variety,” said Jim De La Cruz, the bakery manager. “We’ve got eight varieties of white bread alone.” (Bryce S. Dubee / S&S)
Loaves of bread, fresh from the oven, move along a conveyer belt on their way to be sliced and packaged. “The toughest challenge is the variety,” said Jim De La Cruz, the bakery manager. “We’ve got eight varieties of white bread alone.” (Bryce S. Dubee / S&S)
Once the bread loaves are bagged, they’re placed into containers to be transported to U.S. military bases across Japan. These baked goods were headed to the commissary at Sagami Depot on Thursday. (Bryce S. Dubee / S&S)
A baker at the Army and Air Force Exchange Service Bakery at Yokota Air Base, Japan, adds salt to a dough mixture. The bakery goes through about 10,000 pounds of dough on an average day. (Bryce S. Dubee / S&S)
Jim De La Cruz, left, the manager of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service Bakery at Yokota Air Base inspects a dough mixture Thursday morning. The bakery provides baked goods to U.S. military bases across Japan. “Most people don’t know we’re even here,” De La Cruz said. (Bryce S. Dubee / S&S)
A baker at the Army and Air Force Exchange Service Bakery at Yokota Air Base moves a pan of uncooked bread loaves onto a conveyer belt, which will take the bread to the oven. (Bryce S. Dubee / S&S)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Just how many weeks has that loaf of Wonder Bread spent in a shipping container before arriving on the commissary shelf here in Japan?
Zero.
That’s because Wonder and other brands of bread are made at Army and Air Force Exchange Service Bakery, near the south end of Yokota Air Base’s flight line. It’s a small, nondescript building with a huge mission, providing many of the baked goods that end up in the commissaries, chow halls, hospitals, schools and even Burger Kings at bases across Japan.
“AAFES started these bakeries to support the military stationed overseas,” bakery manager Jim De La Cruz said, adding that the Yokota facility is one of only four remaining AAFES bakeries worldwide.
The smallest of the four plants — the other three are in Korea, Okinawa and Germany — the Yokota facility bakes about 10,000 pounds of dough on an average day, about 18,000 on a busy day, De La Cruz said.
“Most people don’t know we’re even here,” he said.
De La Cruz said the bakery makes its main line of Wonder brand goods and Northwest Grains, Country Hearth and Nature’s Recipe breads — all under license from those companies. The bakery also makes buns, cakes, cookies, pies and even a small quantity of doughnuts.
“The toughest challenge is the variety,” he said. “We’ve got eight varieties of white bread alone.”
Baked goods made at Yokota end up at every military installation in Japan — from Misawa Air Base in the north to Sasebo Naval Base in the south — and even visiting U.S. Navy ships. De La Cruz said there’s never any set quota of products being made on any given day.
“When I first came here, the manager said that no two days are ever the same,” he said, crediting his staff for the smoothness of operations.
“These guys rock,” he said. “I don’t know if I’d be happy in any other bakery.”
De La Cruz said he spends production floor, alongside the 23-person production crew, checking samples, ensuring items are up to standard and keeping up morale.
Food safety standards have gotten stricter in recent years, especially after Sept. 11, he said. The bakery is routinely inspected by Yokota health officials, Army veterinary medicine and the American Institute of Baking. And samples are sent out several times a month to companies like Wonder to make sure the correct ingredient mixtures and recipes are being followed.
It’s a lot of work beyond just baking bread, De La Cruz said, pointing out that staff also answer customer concerns, provide baking tips to base residents and conduct bakery tours for school groups and other organizations.
