In its first update on efforts to address food insecurity among active-duty troops, the Pentagon said it’s taking steps to make on-base food options more usable and attractive, but officials also noted that the department is just starting to gather the data it needs to learn how to fully root out the problem of some troops not getting enough to eat or worrying where their next meal might come from.
In addition to the pay increases and new allowances that have been passed by Congress this year — measures that are expected to help service members with families — a senior defense department official told Military.com making food easier to get on base is “something the services are leaned into very heavily.”
“They have been doing a lot of work trying to make sure that the way service members, the single service members, who live on the installations, in the barracks, have access to food,” the official said in an interview Wednesday.
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For years, the issue of troops struggling to put food on the table has been a topic of study and conversation among military support organizations and advocacy groups, but the Pentagon had avoided taking major action to address the issue until recent years. Service members told Military.com in past reports that they saw leaders as part of the problem rather than a solution.
But as COVID-19…
