Kiosks have been used as a way to entice more soldiers to utilize the DFAC, but they're also closing the actual DFACs at certain times (weekends mostly) to only run Kiosks.
This works fine in theory, but the Carson post shuttle is trash. From where I was in the barracks to Stack DFAC was 2.5 miles; easy for me with a car, not so easy for my brand new soldiers. The kids out in the aviation barracks had a 4 mile trip.
This is the same story in other bases like Liberty and Cavazos.
DFACs have a few problems for attracting soldiers; quality of food, quantity of servings (protien), and consistency of product.
The TL;DR way I'd adress fixing it is collegiate style budget, BCT cook companies, and updated menus.
The #1 thing I'd want to see fixed is giving DFACs an actual budget. For some god awful reason the army decided DFACs need to run like a civilian restaurant, I.E. we only make money when soldiers come in and swipe meal cards. This creates a catch 22 of the DFAC only being able to serve cheap food (fish, ground beef, chicken), which in turn makes soldiers not want to eat there. Go to a collegiate styled budget, where the DFAC's monthly budget is determined via the number of single soldiers assigned to the Brigade/other metrics the DFAC supports.
The next is cooks in the DFAC need to stay in the DFAC, I.E. focus on supporting the DFAC and not being pulled for Motorpool Mondays, etc. This is currently in practice at the Cook Companys and has had a considerable impact from what my active duty peers have told me. Currently these companys only exists at the "Echelon above Brigade" level, but I think it could be recreated at the Brigade level by creating a cook company within the Support Battalion. The BCT structure (as I remember) was that all cooks were part of the BSB, but that they were part of the support company that fell under (OPCON/ADCON, can't remember which). This created a "two dads" situation where the cooks in 1-502nd get pulled for ABC and the dudes in 1-75 get pulled for xyz.
A Brigade level cook company allows for a rotation between DFAC operations, training, and equipment maintenance. The other battalions would maintain a cook E6/E7 within the support company as the culinary SME to provide all logistical planning/support the line units need.
Lastly is the menus. Quite frankly, younger troops aren't big on the army chow menus that have existed since the 70s. Nobody is excited to come into the DFAC for meatloaf, corn, and mashed potatoes. The army needs to desperately update it's menu planning to allow for more "quick service" styled options; think Chipotle, subway, noodles & Company, etc. The most utilized DFAC I ever worked in was one that sold itself on having "Fazoli, Chipotle, Subway, Wingstop" days each week. That lasted until a new foodservice warrant got there and told us we "weren't following Army menu plans" and made us go back to the old 21 day menus. Our usage halved after that.
