'It's not like a normal restaurant where you can complain,' says one British soldier of the substandard food at army bases
in Wiltshire, British troops are engaged in a running battle—with their caterers. Meals at the base, served up by a French contractor, Sodexo, are so unpopular that soldiers have taken to buying George Foreman grills from a nearby Tesco supermarket. Yet once outed by their battalion quartermaster sergeant, often accompanied by Sodexo employees, these guerrilla chefs risk having their grills confiscated or disabled and being punished with show parade at night.
Britain’s armed forces are struggling to keep the ranks filled. In July the services counted on 191,600 personnel, down from more than 220,000 in 2012. Three-fifths of those who left in the previous 12 months did so before their contracts had expired. Surveys of service personnel show that morale peaked in 2009, when 58% of “other ranks” were satisfied with service life. This year only 43% said the same.
The first skirmish came three years ago, when soldiers launched a vicious attack on the food on social media. “Because it’s the military they basically think we can’t touch them,” says one, “so it’s not like a normal restaurant where you can complain.” In the same year Sodexo strengthened its monopoly on food at Larkhill by replacing Katie’s Kitchen, a food van driven for 27 years by a local woman, Linda Clark, with its own van.
Sodexo provides catering and cleaning services at 31 army and air force bases in the south of England, and at six bases in Cyprus and the Falklands. “Retaining people used to a radically changing social environment is challenging,” says Mark Baker, a Sodexo director who says the grills were confiscated to ensure fire safety. He is now helping draw up plans with the army to create more relaxation areas inside barracks. As he points out, defence does not have a bottomless budget.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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