Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. emphasized the importance of feeding troops well on Thursday while visiting Fort Carson. 

The secretary toured the newly opened Stack House Bistro where Compass Group USA staff served samples of chicken tacos, rice and fish served with vegetables, and watermelon. 

The bistro at Fort Carson is the Army’s second campus-style dining hall, and Kennedy said he expected the military would expand the model to other installations. 

“I know that Secretary Hegseth is hoping we can scale this to the rest of the country,” he said. 

He also met with soldiers on base, who praised the bistro that opened in April as part of an Army pilot program to offer dining options similar to those on college campuses. 

Before the bistro, Kennedy said soldiers were voting with their feet and choosing to leave base to eat. 

“They were spending their paychecks, their meager paychecks on food off base,” he said. 

The junior enlisted soldiers who are most likely to live on base and rely on the dining halls have meal cards that are similar to those found on a college campus and are loaded with a dollar amount deducted from their Basic Allowance for Subsistence payments. Enlisted members receive $476 a month for food from the Army.

In addition to Fort Carson, the Army expects to open campus-style dining at Fort Bliss, Texas, Fort Campbell, Ky., Fort Irwin, Calif., and overseas installations.

During a brief interaction with local media outlets, Kennedy emphasized his work with Health and Human Services to improve dietary guidelines for Americans, including flipping the food pyramid to emphasize protein, fruits, vegetables and whole grains. 

The changes could be summarized in three words: “Eat real food,” he said.

But some of those changes have to be made in government contracting.

“Our job is to change the dietary culture in our country, using particularly the food procurement program,” he said. 

Previous food purchasing for the military emphasized how long food could be held on a shelf, instead of the nutritional value of the food.  

“This is an investment in the American soldier,” he said of the new dining facility.

The Army is contracting with the Compass Group to run the bistro for the next five years and expects to reimburse the company based on the number of meals sold, The Gazette reported previously. Kennedy said he expected the model would save the Army money on a per-meal basis and hoped to see similar changes made at schools across the country.