The Providers Warrior Restaurant at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, recently received a grade of “F after a Jan. 6 food service inspection, a spokesperson for the 82nd Airborne Division confirmed. The official attributed the failing grade to a “mislabeled item in a time-sensitive area,” adding that subsequent corrections and improvements by chow hall staff have since earned an upgrade to a “C.”
“Inspectors identified a procedural issue regarding the documentation of food temperatures,” Maj. Joseph Bush told Task & Purpose. “Out of an abundance of caution, all potentially affected items were immediately discarded. No illnesses have been reported.”
News that the chow hall had received a failing grade has been widely shared on social media for days. A picture of the “F” rating at the Fort Bragg dining facility was first posted last week on the unofficial Army subreddit page. Task & Purpose has confirmed the photo is authentic. Food safety ratings are on a letter grade scale, with “A” being the best and “F” signaling severe issues.
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Army veteran Rob Evans, who runs the Hots & Cots app on which military members post problems with on-base facilities like chowhalls and barracks, shared on X specifics he’d learned behind the failed inspection at the chow hall, which is also known as the Providers Café and the 82nd Airborne Sustainment Brigade Dining Facility.
“Inspectors identified multiple critical and non-critical deficiencies, including food labeling, sanitation, temperature control, equipment sanitization, and documentation related to Time as a Public Health Control procedures.” Evans posted on Monday.
Most of those issues cited by Evans, Bush said, “fall under the one incident of a mislabeled item in a time-sensitive area.”
According to Bush, the dining facility’s staff immediately took steps to correct the issues, including conducting additional training on food safety standards. On Jan. 12, inspectors confirmed that the chow hall had carried out appropriate corrective actions, he said.
Following a re-inspection, the dining facility received a “C” rating, which is the highest it could get immediately after receiving an “F”, said Bush. The chow hall, he noted, is “eligible to receive an ‘A’ next month.”
“The health and well-being of our paratroopers is our highest priority,” Bush said. “The 82nd Airborne Sustainment Brigade Dining Facility is highly decorated, having won the prestigious Philip A. Conley competition for excellence in food service multiple times in recent years. The culinary specialists are dedicated to serving our paratroopers the highest quality meals and have used this as a valuable training opportunity to reinforce their commitment to excellence.”
Evans told Task & Purpose that he felt Fort Bragg had been transparent about the issues leading to the chow hall getting an “F”, but he believes the Defense Department as a whole needs to make it easier for service members to find out why dining facilities receive their grades.
“For example, I could go to the South Carolina health and welfare site and see why the Moe’s or the Chipotle got a ‘B’ rating. I could see the food inspection report,” Evans said. “You can’t do that with dining facilities on a military installation. You have to contact them or do a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act request].”
Evans said another issue for transparency is the private contractors who run some military dining facilities. Those private companies, Evans said, can claim that information on facility grades could provide a business competitor with an advantage.
Evans said he hopes that Congress passes a law — possibly as part of the next National Defense Authorization Act — that requires food inspection records for military dining facilities to be searchable on the internet.
“I think that’s fair for service members and the public,” Evans said.
