Hello All,
Hope you're having a great break (shoutout to the firefighters/MPs who shift it).
A few questions about your local coffee arrangements:
- Which coffee service (if any) do you have at your canteen / office?
B. Does it run on a subscription service?
- It is base-wide?
D. Are you happy with it?
- Have your reps ever re-negotiated the "contract" and were you happy with the outcome?
I'm trying to bring variety to the canteen, and need info to present to the Social Committee in the new year.
Currently we are using Van Houtte, and I am... unimpressed with the services, and looking to find alternatives.
You have coffee services?
We have tins of coffee and k-cups from Costco...
Woah k cups… I have a bottle on PC instant coffee and a kettle…
You've got a kettle?? We need to wait for flight remains and leech that
To be honest… wife wanted me to stop eating the instant coffee like a heathen. Little does she know…. 😈
PC coffee is underrated
NPF losers watching this thread like a hawk 👀
Oh wait till you hear from people who think you have fancy tastes and are shocked that you have coffee service at all. A lot of units have nothing. Some of these units have gone out and bought kuerigs and have a local canteen fund where they chip in for coffee pods. When I was in Ottawa years ago I was in a unit with several hundred people, we had nothing.
For us, we usually just buy a box of keurig cups from Costco and then alternate who buys the box. Usually the OC and Myself swap, if others wish to contribute we don't stop them but we definitely dont expect them to. We figure it's the least we can do for the troops.
This is what we do. Take turns (or don't) buying pods for the Keurig that was donated by someone else.
All I can do is try to make the section a place I would want to work when I was a Jr member. I am a firm believer that the unit should be providing coffee/tea for the members just as much as they should supply drinking water.
I guess both our Flair trades check out then lol.
Have none. People bring their own pods for a few typesof machines in the lunch room.
Imagine if PSP / NPF provided morale services like canteen? What a world it would be...
Npf/psp would rather drag you through hot coals before letting people setup their own crowd sourced coffee funds.
The biggest obstacle to morale and welfare services is cfmws.
That cannot be overstated.
My father released in the 2000, he was mind boggled that unit canteens were chocolate bars and pop (if they existed at all). When he was in they had fully equipped kitchens and would do soup, sandwiches, fries and burgers.
Ive always wondered why food svc canteens, where they do exists in DND properties, are rented out to Aramark or some other pariah corp.
Like, is that that difficult and far-fetched for CFMWS to open a food svcs division, get some people trained in food safe, and run these places?
Foods like soups and fries and burgers come from major distributors like Sysco and only need thawing and heating to be served.
A small profit could be made and reinvested back into morale and welfare funds. Instead, these places rip us off with exorbitant prices and the private corp benefits.
Make CFMWS useful (again?)
There's an Aramark cafe near me, it's insanely expensive
Fun fact! Did you know the CFMWS in a non-profit "associated" with the government?
Its a Schedule V organization in the Financial Administration Act, like the Food Inspection Agency of Canada.
All this to say... CFMWS cant tell the military what to do. But you guys just let them. Like if CFMWS is telling you that you cant buy a tin of coffee.... they fundamentally misunderstand their authority, and so do the people that let them....
Lol. I know right?
We also technically have to go through CANEX to purchase anything, which means it's really hard to offer anything at low prices.
Even harder to make a small profit to pay for other things like unit activities, t-shirts and other things.
What do you mean, what kind of purchases?
Canteens operate on an NPF charter.
My understanding is that CANEX has first right of refusal for any product you want to sell at the canteen.
So coffee, Gatorade, sodas, chocolate, etc. would all have to be bought from CANEX and not directly from wholesale.
As long as whatever you are selling is branded with the unit logo, then you can sell whatever (or close to whatever) you want. Also Canex is routinely sold out of the things we stock in our canteen so going to Walmart or Costco is an option. The problem is how to pay for that stuff. If you use the NPF credit card then the card holder has to go shopping with you. If you go to Canex they just invoice NPF directly. No cash or card need - just the unit name and the unit CFOne number (which they can tell you what it is)
The keyword is sale.
Nothing against a money potluck that ends up as a Costco sized white monsters only for a 3rd of the price for example.
Why can’t you use npf? Vote it into your unit npf constitution
I suspect most went to single serve because there is always a couple people / self absorbed jerks at each unit that leaves 3/4 of a cup left on to burn on the element instead of either emptying the rest out at 2 pm or making a fresh pot earlier in the day. If caught, they claim there is still a full cup left to drink and to say otherwise is harassment. Also, people don't pay up in the coffee fund honor system who claim they paid last week. Sure, sure, right along with your twoonie for civi Fridays.
You guys have a coffee service?
We've got the CANEX canteen at $3.50 per medium burnt coffee
Our Canex doesn't have coffee... Lucky for us right outside is a McD and TimHos... Unfortunately for me my unit is across town (yes town. Not base) and fully remote from any base services.
This is Kingston………
HAHA I know it's you NPF !
https://i.redd.it/f0hoe1f2w87g1.gif
Uh.. people usually go to timmies, or someone brings in their own Keurig or Nespresso machine and people bring their own pods or have an internal coffee fund to buy pods for the office.
I have nothing to contribute other than Van Houtte is some of the worst coffee you can buy.
Agreed, thus, the thread.
We already stock from Costco, so it’s not a biggie just grabbing Keurgs, and giving people a variety…
You have a canteen let alone a coffee service..... This MF does AF like nobody else!
Why would you hire a service for this? I used to work in a unit where the social committee bought an industrial coffee machine and you could pay a few bucks a month to have as much coffee as you like. If your canteen is staffed it's a no brainer, just start it up in the morning and refill as needed.
Agreed, looking at options. The coffee percolators never break, so that’s one argument done had at work. “The service gives us the machines for free, and if they break, they fix them”. I haven’t seen a broken one yet in 3 years, and going by the math, that’s the break even point at $1.25/cup.
We used to have van houtte in the office. I met a dude that swore by french press coffee and kept a miniature one at his desk. Now I drink coffee that way.
It takes a few extra minutes but it's so fucking superior to most of the slop that comes out of a machine
amazing, now we can safely assume there is or will be foreign interference in our coffee soon
HA! This actually made me laugh out loud.
We used QOL funds to get a new Keurig and kettle. Works for us
Honestly though, I don’t understand what “coffee service” is supposed to mean…
We have an espresso machine and people buy beans.
I bought espresso machines for all the sections in my unit - using L101. Up to the members to get their own beans. Maintaining a well caffeinated fighting force is a valid use of O&M money.
Who let you do that?
Seems like a perfectly justifiable expense. I approved it.
This is something I am far too army to understand.
The leadership takes turns buying Costco Kcups and flavour creamers for our machine that we have to fill the the jug for.
I would question any unit paying for a coffee service that those funds could be better spent else where
The CAF is not a monolith and every unit is different, as you can see from the responses. Do whatever fits your unit. In my experience, it's best not to bring a problem to leadership but instead, bring a problem with your already proposed solution. So that in mind, find out if people are willing to chip in a little bit per month to have better quality coffee, if your coffee is indeed lacking. Just because another unit across the country is using a coffee service doesn't mean it's going to work for your unit, especially your budget.
FYSA: A lot of trades in the Air Force, several in the Navy and a few in purple trades, are operational on a daily basis and don't need to deploy or be a military police officer or firefighter to do their job 24/7; they work shift work, too, and they do it all the time as part of their regular job.
What happened to C.?
No "service", people brought their own gear at work.
We have 2 drip coffee machine, 3 Keurigs, 2 Nespresso and one Breville Espresso machine. Communal grinder in the canteen for those who like fresh (no flavoured beans allowed).
For a worker population of...... 50.
We have a weekly coffee break for everyone. We pay that with that our mess dues. Coffee, eggs and toast(meat if you’re early). Other than that is on your section 😢:(
West coast ships buy big bags of beans from Sysco, or stock up on Hawaiian beans when we're there. If there wasn't coffee the crews would be liable to do the big funny and jack sparrow the logistics officer on some godforsaken spit of land in the middle of nowhere.
I went on Facebook marketplace and bought a Nespresso original line, a nespresso vertuo, a milk frother, and a kettle for $60. I’ll add a French press after block leave, and that should allow me or anyone visiting to make any kind of coffee their heart desires. No contract or anything. I work in a satellite location and I’m the only one from my unit in the building.
Where i work we have a couple of Keurigs and everyone brings their own pods. Keeps it simple