Years ago, before I came to Aramark, I was at a joint Army and Air Force training exercise. I went through the field kitchen line and asked the service member serving the food what the protein was. He looked me in the eye and said, “I have no idea, sir.” I ended up eating a bag salad that day. I still remember it, because it showed me how easy it is to treat feeding a force as an afterthought.
I spent 12 years in the Air Force, seven years enlisted and five as an officer. Food service ran through my whole career. When I wore the uniform, I wanted my Airmen to have the best of everything, because people willing to give their lives for this country deserve nothing less. I do not wear the uniform anymore. I still hold that standard. It is why I do this work now.
Most people do not know what Aramark’s Salute Hospitality actually is, so let me be direct. We run full-service dining on military installations. Not a vending line, not a contract to check a box. Real kitchens, real chefs, and programs built to feed a mission-ready force every day, across every daypart, from breakfast through midnight service near the flight line.
We build the program differently for each branch, because the branches are not the same. On an Air Force base, dining is about quality and community. Airmen and Guardians come in, choose across multiple stations, and stay a while. On the Army side, it is about moving a high volume of soldiers through quickly without giving up nutrition or quality. Understanding that difference is the job. A program built for one mission environment will not perform in another.
Here is one example of what that looks like in practice. In the Air Force, the Airmen are the ones cooking the food. Many arrive without professional kitchen experience. Some have never held a knife. So, our chefs are educators first. They teach knife skills, production technique, sanitation, and nutrition fundamentals. For most of these Airmen, we are their continuing culinary education. As Daniel Ovanin, our Senior Executive Chef for the Air Force portfolio, puts it:
"The work is culinary. The outcome is readiness."
That is the part people miss. A dining facility is a mission-essential operation. When the food is consistent and built for performance, it holds up readiness. When it is not, that shows up in recovery, focus, and retention. Feeding a force is not a support service layered on top of the mission. It is part of the mission.
I chose this work because the belief behind it matched my own. My commitment has always been to the service members. Aramark shares that conviction: the people who serve this country deserve to be fed to a standard worthy of what they do. That is why I am here, and it is what Salute Hospitality is built to deliver.
Gregory Sides is Vice President of Operations for Salute Hospitality. He served 12 years in the U.S. Air Force.
Learn more about Salute Hospitality HERE.