The challenges of any high-volume foodservice operation are clear, but consider the job of Louie Juarez, chief warrant officer in charge of the West Coast Food Management Team that serves tens of thousands of meals daily to Marines at bases across the West Coast.
Based at Camp Pendleton in Southern California, Juarez recently served as an evaluator for the National Restaurant Association’s Major General W.P.T. Hill Awards, honoring the best reserve field mess in the Marine Corps. Juarez was on a team that won the award in 2005.
What do you do at Camp Pendleton?
I am currently assigned as the officer in charge of the West Coast Food Management Team. Our mission is to evaluate, train and assist the commands in the Western region with garrison and field-feeding operations, including camps in Bridgeport, Calif.; 29 Palms, Calif.; Miramar, Calif.; San Diego; Camp Pendleton; and Yuma, Ariz.
When did you join the Marines, and how did you end up in foodservice there?
I enlisted into the Marines in 1987 and have been in the foodservice field my entire time. I was appointed to my current position by the director of foodservice based out of the Navy Annex in Washington, D.C. I am stationed here on Camp Pendleton, but all my guidance comes from Marine Corps headquarters.
FAST FACTS EXPERIENCE: 22 years with the U.S. Marine Corps in foodserviceHOMETOWN: Parlier, Calif.HOBBIES: “Watching my kids grow up and being involved in their daily activities, such as baseball, cheerleading and dance.”PERSONAL: married, three children
What goals are you required to meet when developing menus to feed these hungry marines?
Menus are developed at the regional level for garrison, or cafeteria-style, feeding. Nutritional balance and caloric intake are the primary concern. For instance, menus for certain mess halls are specifically designed to provide the added nutrition required to sustain the rigorous training regiments by our Marines in those locations. Ethnic preferences are considered when developing menus, and we have introduced specialty bars, such as the taco bar, pasta bar and Asian bar.
For field feeding, we rely on Soldiers Systems Center, called Natick, to develop and continuously improve our operational rations, such as the meal ready to eat and unitized group rations. These operational rations must be developed to provide the necessary nutrients to sustain our Marines during training evolutions or in combat. We also rely on the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia to support our operational rations requirements by fielding them to the locations required, whether here in the continental United States or overseas.
How many people do you feed at the base daily, and in what format?
Camp Pendleton feeds anywhere between 25,000 to 30,000 garrison-type meals on a daily basis. That count does not include Marines subsisting on operational rations on a daily basis during field training exercises.
What are your plans when your service is up?
When that time comes, I am positive that I will continue doing what I have a passion for, and that is foodservice.