JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas – It’s Mission Monday. Meet Senior Master Sgt. Daniel Ramirez Rivera, the Air Force Services Center’s Department of the Air Force Food and Beverage superintendent.
Ramirez and his team provide functional program support, policy and guidance clarification, and field operating and corporate expertise for food production, quality assurance, financial management and inventory control to worldwide DAF food and beverage operations.
We asked Ramirez to tell us a little more about himself and the work he does in support of the DAF enterprise:
What do you love about your job?
Being able to be part of conversations that impact the strategic direction of DAF food and beverage.
When it comes to your job, what keeps you motivated?
Airmen in the field … being able to advise them and make positive changes that improve their training, procedures and understanding of restaurant management concepts.
Why are you and your team important to the Air Force and Space Force enterprise and your customers?
We help them interpret guidance and strive to guide and train them; being there for them 365 days of the year.
Describe a project or event you and your team worked on recently that gave you a great sense of accomplishment:
Updating our outdated DAF manual; it needed to undergo a complete review and rewrite.
How does what you do support AFIMSC’s strategic priorities?
Our in-garrison mission supports not only essential station messing (meal card) populations but temporary duty patrons, enlisted and even families during holidays. It becomes an integral pillar of an installation’s community. It also prepares our food service Airmen to deploy and execute top-notch food support to joint forces and mission partners anywhere in the world.
Is there anything else you’d like to add that might help people understand the importance of what you do for the Department of the Air Force?
I’m grateful and honored to work with a team that is so passionate about food! Food is essential to the Department of the Air Force as it is to any military organization. Proper nutrition is crucial to maintaining the health, well-being and overall readiness of our personnel and the DAF recognizes the importance of providing its members with nutritious and balanced meals, to sustain them during their daily activities and enable them to perform at their best during training, deployments and missions.
In addition, the DAF also recognizes the role that food plays in morale and quality of life. Providing tasty, varied and culturally appropriate meals helps to boost the spirits of patrons, especially during long deployments or challenging training exercises.