One of your responsibilities as leading MS may be to act as the customer service representative to the FSO. In this capacity you must be present in the mess area to answer patrons' inquiries and to receive their suggestions or comments during each meal.

A suggestion box also should be prominently posted at each exit for the convenience of the patrons. This suggestion box should have a pencil or pen attached and have Suggestion to the Food Service Officer, NAVSUP Forms 134. (ig. 13-41_ or local forms provided for customer use. You should remove suggestions daily, after the evening meal, and turn them in to the FSO. The

Figure 13-4.-Suggestion to the Food Service Officer, NAVSUP Form 1343.

FSO should review all suggestions for possible adoption.

EVALUATING FOODSERVICE SUGGESTIONS.- Customers submitting suggestions or comments should be treated as individuals with individual needs. Most customers experience an empty stomach three times a day. Conversely, this need is routinely filled on a more impersonal basis-the same filling for all customers. You may provide the correct service, but if you treat the customer as just one of a group, rather than as an individual, it may cause resentment. Therefore, when evaluating suggestions or comments, you should present the right attitude toward the needs of the customer. These needs may run the extent from the ridiculous, through the routine, to the very difficult. However, these categories reflect your opinion of the needs and requests-not the customer's. The problems are important to the customers, otherwise they would not have submitted a suggestion or comment. Thus, you should make all customers feel that their problem is important.

Regardless of the nature or seriousness of a customer's problem, certain negative factors may serve to complicate it. For example, the customer may be angry, worried, or frustrated. Possibly, the customer may be unwilling to accept anything less than his or her desired solution to the problem. Awareness of these factors allows you to approach each suggestion practically and, in turn, deal with most rational suggestions effectively.

GIVING FEEDBACK ON SUGGESTIONS.- The FSO should evaluate all suggestions or comments and furnish a reply when requested, within 48 hours. The leading MS should make sure the proper action is taken to adopt or implement those suggestions the FSO considers favorable to improving the quality of service. Adopted suggestions should be posted twice weekly or placed in the ship or station plan of the day for the crew's convenience.

Recording Meals Consumed

There are different categories under which personnel fall when recording meal consumption. For you to account properly for all meals consumed in a GM, you must understand rations and ration entitlement. Also, the distinction between afloat and ashore recording procedures must be understood.

RATIONS.- Many times you have heard senior MSs say, "prepare 100 rations of that item." What the MS really meant is "prepare 100 portions" because a ration is defined as a basic daily food allowance (BDFA). This and related terms will be explained next. Basic daily food allowance. The BDFA is a prescribed quantity of food, defined by components or monetary value, required to provide a nutritionally adequate diet for one person for 1 day.

Supplemental food allowance. A supplemental food allowance is a prescribed quantity of food, defined by quantity or monetary value, which, due to unusual or extraordinary circumstances, is required in addition to the BDFA.

Special food allowance. A special food allowance is a prescribed quantity of food, defined by components, quantity, or monetary value, required when use of the BDFA is insufficient.

Night meals. Night meals are quantities of food that may be furnished to enlisted people standing night watches or performing other assigned duties between 2000 and 0800 hours. The value of food items used in preparing night meals is included in the total cost of issues to the GM. No additional ration credit may be claimed during sea periods regardless of the number of meals an individual consumes, including night meals.

Migrations (midrats). Midrats are food items such as soup, crackers, sandwiches, and leftovers normally offered to personnel assuming the midwatch and those being relieved. Midrats are different from night meals in that they are offered to personnel who have already consumed their breakfast, lunch, and dinner during normal meal hours, Therefore, they are not entitled to a fill night's meal. The value of food items used to prepare midrats is included in the total cost of issues to the GM. However, taking ration credit for midrats and/or the sale of midrats is not authorized.

Combat meals. Combat meals are classified into special- and general-use categories. Special-use combat meals consist of individually packaged rations, long-range patrol (LRP) rations, and MRE rations. General-use combat meals are regular GM meals prepared from on-hand stocks of perishable and semiperishable subsistence.

Picnics, recreation events, and coffee messes, Personnel may be authorized by the CO to receive food items for picnics, recreation events, and coffee messes from the GM. COs should establish such controls as necessary to make sure only personnel entitled to rations-in-kind are furnished food without charge, cooked or uncooked, for picnics or coffee messes.

Rations-in-kind. This is the term used to describe meals furnished to enlisted personal from the GM at government expense.

RATION ENTITLEMENT.- Regular and Reserve enlisted personnel of the armed services, officer candidates, cadets of the armed forces academies in a duty status, and prisoners of war are entitled to rations-in-kind at government expense under various appropriation acts.

Retired enlisted military personnel confined in a hospital or dispensary are entitled to rations-in-kind. Destitute survivors of disasters, refugees, civilian evacuees, and American seamen may be fed without charge in Navy messes. Entitlement is determined and action taken to effect reimbursement by NAVFSSO as appropriate from the data furnished in the certification required for this category of personnel.

Rations are furnished to foreign government personnel on a cash basis, except when the invitational travel orders authorize other means of reimbursement. Enlisted personnel in a travel status who are receiving per diem instead of subsistence are not entitled to rations-in-kind unless their orders are endorsed showing the number and type of meals authorized.

Cash sales may be authorized to various types of personnel. Usually, approval of the CO is all that is required and, in some instances, this approval can be obtained in the form of supply department instructions. Only those personnel entitled to rations-in-kind are authorized to eat without charge; all others must pay for each meal consumed.

AFLOAT PROCEDURES.- On the first day of the month, the executive or personnel officer should advise the FSO of the estimated daily number of personnel entitled to be fed in the GM. The FSO should be told when any significant change to the number of personnel entitled to subsist occurs during the month. When rations for foreign or other personnel are included, the FSO should be informed also.

The FSO uses the daily expected number of rations allowed to accomplish the following:

Post the General Mess Control Record, NAVSUP Form 338, each day at sea.

Plan the quantities of food to be prepared on the following day based on the actual number of persons expected to be fed using the current acceptability factors.

Prepare certifications as required and arrange to have them completed and signed before departure of

personnel requiring certification. The FSO signs certifications when signatures of persons in charge of groups cannot be obtained.

During days at sea, ration credit should be taken for each enlisted member on board. Ration credit also should be recorded daily on the NAVSUP Form 338 for all meals sold for cash. Days at sea includes the day of leaving and the day of arriving regardless of the time of departure or return.

During in-port periods, ration credit should be taken only for the personnel actually fed. Any convenient, accurate method for determining this number is permissible; usually, a hand counter is used by the master-at-arms as personnel pass through the serving line. Full ration credit may be taken in port while simulated at-sea exercises are being held and all personnel are remaining aboard overnight.

Ration allowances are adjusted to compensate for the change in the calendar day resulting from crossing the 180th meridian. When the time is set back 1 day in crossing from the west (Japan) to the east (United States), rations are credited for the extra day. When time is advanced 1 day in crossing from the east (United States) to the west (Japan), rations are not credited for the lost day.