How Did a Marine Corps Food Contract Grow to $1.2 Billion?

[The Straight Story]

How Did a Marine Corps Food Contract Grow to $1.2 Billion?

The Department of Defense is on the hook for paying more than $1 billion just to feed the U.S. Marine Corps, now that a contract with a France-based company has swelled with added costs.

What was supposed to cost $881 million is now looking like $1.2 billion, making the deal with catering company Sodexo the largest-ever domestic military food service contract in procurement history.

Again and again modifications were made to the Sodexo arrangement, causing a 36% increase in costs. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has questioned whether all the changes were necessary.

Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by SEIU show that mess hall services at Marine bases on the West Coast were modified at least 36 times between 2003 and 2009.

The deal also contains several “undefinitized provisions” which allowed Sodexo to begin work before the government decided on a final dollar amount.

http://www.allgov.com/Where_is_the_Money_Going/ViewNews/How_Did_a_Marine_Corps_Food_Contract_Grow_to_1_2_Billion_110115

[baldguy]

1. They spend more *BECAUSE* it's been privatized.

After all, a business has to make a profit. Doesn't it?

[B Calm]

22. They privatized everything in the military that use to save tax payers money.

[Auggie]

2. That's a lot of cheese and pâté

[pipoman]

3. I've eaten in the mess on Pendleton and MCRD San Diego

the food has gotten better over the years...probably too good. The reason SODEXO is making the food better is because there are many other food options both on base and within a mile of any gate, imo. MCRD has less options than Pendelton, but their core eaters have no other option...they are captive.

[Auggie]

6. Well, the Marines deserve the best...

ALL the military deserves the best, and I mean that sincerely. Food, gear, and especially health care (active and retired)...

[pipoman]

11. I don't disagree that they deserve good food

my son eats at Pendelton's mess almost daily. He says that the biggest problem he sees is over staffing..he says not just minor over staffing, it is way too many people doing nothing every time he is there.

[mzteris]

12. why should there be "staffing" -

this shouldn't be outsourced - it should be done by enlisted personnel.

[pipoman]

13. There are actually less and less

things done by enlisted. The Marines have an agreement with Sodexo to provide dining services for their bases. All of the people employed by dining services are actually Sodexo employees, just like in many hospitals, prisons and schools. Even the guards at the gate at Pendelton are contractors, not marines. I believe the idea is to reduce the amount of benefits given to Marines by reducing Marine staffing of these areas.

[mzteris]

14. it seems to be a really stupid use of resources. . .

you have the manpower you're paying already, use them to do the work that needs doing. In the process they learn another skill - besides war . . .

[NutmegYankee]

20. The idea is to free up the soldiers to conduct war.

Rather than have a trained marine cooking or cleaning and the like, civilians are used to fill these roles while marines go off and fight.


I'm not a fan of outsourcing at all, but this is why they did it.

[pipoman]

4. Just for clarification

Sodexo is the institutional food division of Sysco Foods, the worlds largest restaurant/food service provider. Sodexo has many divisions. They provide beginning to end food services for all sorts of institutions, schools, healthcare, etc. They also have divisions for group buying of products for institutions which operate their own food service preparation facilities. They contract with product suppliers for reduced pricing based on volume. These coops go beyond actual food into equipment, supplies, uniforms, education, etc. The savings from suppliers isn't necessarily passed on to Sysco customers particularly smaller restaurants. This makes the margins earned by Sysco enormous on some customers. The buying power achieved by huge contracts like the USMC contract amounts to a lot of additional profit in other venues.

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. Sysco's Crimes About 191,000 results on Google

Just Googled it.

I suppose they are all false.

[pipoman]

8. I did

and have no idea what you think that means...Sysco's own front page came up on the first page. Try putting it in quotes, I did and got 4 results. Is there something in particular you are referring to?

Now I'm no great fan of Sysco. The truth is that they provide probably 70% of the food you eat (maybe have ever eaten) outside of your home...they are a grocery supplier to restaurants and food service, and a big business. Eat a hotdog at a ball game..sysco, eat lunch with your kids at school..sysco, eat a nice meal at a restaurant..sysco. I actually bailed on a contract with sysco and signed with a competitor.

[dems_rightnow]

18. Could be

"Obama crimes" would net you 14 million hits. And choosing a random celebrity....
"Mae West crimes" yields 320,000.

[SidDithers]

21. Bush integrity, almost 6 million results on Google...nt

Sid

[Bigmack]

5. When I was in the Corps....

... ya young whippersnappers... We at dog food. And were glad of it!

Seriously, one of the TADs I had allowed us to eat on an Air Farce base, and I thought we were in the officer's mess! Real food.

Why do the rightwingnuts get away with peddling the bullshit theory that privatization makes prices go down?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. And, real plates and other weird stuff.

Emergency landing at George AFB when on our way to Yuma.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. When I was in the Crotch, we were eating WWII C-rations.

I still, not so fondly, remember the foil wrapped chocolate bars that turned to dust when opened and the dried straw like Lucky-Strikes amongst the other delicacies.

[unhappycamper]

15. We were still eating WW-II C-rats in Nam in 1967.

Two years later we were eating 'super' Cs. Slightly better and no dusty chocolate bar - but - uncle added Ham and Motherfuckers to the mix.

It was good for baseball and not much else.

[pinboy3niner]

16. One of the bad things about C-rats...

...was the weight. We carried a 5-day supply, which is pretty heavy in your ruck when you have to hump them up and down in those mountain jungles all day.

There were a few times when we got LRRP rations, the dehydrated meals designed for long range recon patrols. Light in weight and pretty good (I remember a chicken stew that was actually very tasty). You had to add water, though. No prob when you were sloshing through streams, but if you were operating at higher elevations in the dry season you'd sometimes run out of water--even though we carried four canteens per man. It was a trade-off, but on balance I much preferred humping the LRRP rations. And "ham and motherfuckers" just couldn't compare. :)

:patriot:

[unhappycamper]

17. After the invasion of Cambodia, I ended up with a pretty cushy job -

NCOIC of the MARS station at Cu Chi. (I had lots of friends.)

At the time I was a 31E40 and the 25^th ID's NCOIC was rotating back to the land of round doorknobs. Twas pretty good duty: I learned to fly slicks and got hooked up with the Av community. LRRPS and Trackers were always welcome at any time - if we were talking, they were talking.

[B Calm]

19. When I was in the service we use to have military cooks. In other

words we fed ourselves. We didn't need some damn outside contractor to do our laundry either.