As a Mess Management Specialist (MS) first class or chief, you are at the midmanagement level in your career. In this position of authority, you will have direct working relationships with the supply officer, food service officer (FSO), other supervisors, and subordinates. Your success will be largely determined by your ability to develop strong working relationships with these people. As you should support the workers in your group, so should you turn to your supply officer, FSO, and other supervisors in your division for their support in making your job more effective. You will earn the support of these personnel through cooperation and willingness to assist others, through earnest efforts to do your job well, and through constant efforts to improve yourself, your organization, and the ship or station to which you are attached.

This chapter discusses the use of your administrative skills in procuring food items, using foodservice cost control procedures, and maintaining accountability.

PROCUREMENT OF FOOD ITEMS Although the supply officer or FSO is responsible for procuring of food items, in some instances you must perform these duties. In either case, your experience, your knowledge, and your planned menus will be extremely valuable when preparing requisitions.

A thorough knowledge of the mechanics of procurement is essential. Each phase will be discussed and explained in this chapter. However, before any thought is given to the actual preparation of requisitions and purchase orders, you should determine your needs. This cannot be done on the spur of the moment. You should know what stocks are on hand, how much can be loaded in each storage space, and when to order.

Whatever you procure must be receipted for, inspected, and stored Cha ter covered the points to help you accomplish this efficiently and safely. Prior planning and preparation will eliminate confusion, disorganized storage spaces, and the resultant survey of spoiled food items.

This portion of the chapter is intended to help you find the answers to such questions as the following:

What items should I consider to develop a balanced load?

How do I establish the stockage objective and determine the provision requirements for my ship or station?

What catalog should I use when purchasing or requisitioning food items?

When requisitioning from other Navy activities, what paper work do I submit?

What should I do with unsatisfactory food items?

What are my duties in connection with underway replenishment?

Where in the freeze box should pork, veal, lamb, poultry, and fish be stored?

The fleet cannot stay at sea without food. You are responsible for ensuring maximum endurance capability of your ship.

During the past few years, several crises have arisen that required ships to report to their stations on extremely short notice. There may be other crucial periods in the future that will require similar action.

BALANCED LOAD

You should aid the FSO in developing a balanced load. Use the menu as a daily tool for maintaining a balanced load. A well-developed cycle menu, in conjunction with a frequency chart of major menu items, will aid in determining balanced load requirements. When deployed, you will want to keep a close check on inventories to make the best use of your remaining stocks.

You should have the following information when you are developing a balanced load:

The fleet commander's operation plan that established endurance by ship type for each category of stores

The amount of cubical storage space available for normal operating conditions and the amount of deck storage space available in the event of emergency operations

Your ship's operating schedule

Remember, you cannot establish your food item endurance loads on the basis of formulas and graphs alone. You should apply common sense and good judgment to the problem.

If you have usage data that were generated during extended unreplenished operations, you have ideal information to use in planning your endurance load. However, if the only available data represent usage during replenishment operations or when normal liberty was granted, the data would not reflect requirements for true endurance conditions. Such data can, however, be a help in deciding what foods to include in your endurance load list. When local usage data are applicable, and usage data from a ship of the same class are not available for use in planning load lists, refer to the subsistence endurance base (SEB) in the NAVSUP P-486. This guide is also a helpful tool for MSS who have had limited experience in planning load lists. The Navy Food Service, NAVSUP P-476 (a quarterly foodservice publication), also includes articles on endurance loading.