Home cooked dinners for all dorm residents

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class William O'Brien
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Since the closing of the Joshua Tree Inn Dining Facility, Team Edwards has hosted bi-monthly dorm dinners at the chapel 1 annex.

This is done to provide hot, nutritious meals to Airmen and Marine dormitory residents.

"When the Dining Facility closed, the base community as a whole worried about how the dorm residents would continue to eat healthy," said Alessandra Soltis, wife of Chief Master Sgt. Kevin Soltis, former 412th Test Wing command chief.

To get the dorm dwellers dinners started, a group of volunteers from the base community proposed the concept to the professional organizations and asked for donations from both on and off-base services, such as the Base Exchange, Army and Air Force Exchange Service, Services and Panera Bread.

After months of planning, the first dorm dinner was held July 12, 2007.

"With the good turnout we received from the first dorm dinner, we decided we wanted to continue to have them," said Mrs. Soltis. "We didn't want to overwhelm our volunteers or ask for donations too frequently, so we decided to hold a dorm dinner every other month."

Since then, base units or professional originations have hosted dorm dinners on alternating months. The menu is based on holidays or food the dorm dwellers have suggested.

Although the dorm dinners' main purpose is to give dorm residents a home cooked meal, they do more than that. They bring dorm dwellers together and give them a chance to network with other Airmen and Marines from across the base.

"I've went to every dorm dinner since I've been here," said Airman 1st Class Melanie Rowell, Air Force Flight Test Center paralegal. "That's because they give me an opportunity to network with people from across the base and have a good time."

With the positive feedback volunteers have received from dorm dwellers and continued support from the base community, the dorm dwellers and volunteers say they hope to see these dinners continue to go on for years to come.