Steve Hammel checks in on one of his galley operations (Photo: James Aronovsky ©2008)

What ’s on Hammel’s Plate ?

MEALS SERVED: 30,000/day ANNUAL RETAIL TRANSACTIONS: 2.5 million ANNUAL SALES VOLUME: $40 million LOCATIONS: 13 galleys, 50 retail units

Few if any Silver Plate winners have worked in as many segments as Steve Hammel, winner of the 2008 IFMA Silver Plate Award in the Specialty Foodservices category. The award recognizes his accomplishments as dining services program manager for the U.S. Navy's Southwest Region, but military foodservice is only the latest chapter in a career odyssey in which Hammel also made highly successful stops in the lodging, B&I, senior dining and retail coffee shop segments.

For the Navy, Hammel heads what he describes as “one of the largest self-operated foodservices in the country,” including retail, “galleys” (dining halls reserved for military personnel) and a full-service catering program.

Among his accomplishments since joining the department in 2004 are spurring sales increases of around two percent annually, primarily by using his wide-ranging industry experience to promote a more aggressively commercial approach to operations, marketing and merchandising. He has also cut costs, including the cost of goods by five percent, through sharper purchasing and greater control over inventory levels.

Though the galley operations he oversees remain primarily “straight-line” set ups because of the massive numbers they must serve, Hammel has upgraded food quality and consistency through the increased use of convenience items and revised menus to provide for expanded selection and more “healthy” choices. “We have extensive salad bars and look to emphasize nutritional value,” he offers.

“Like colleges, where students have to eat in the dining halls day after day, we are also constantly asking ourselves, ‘How can we make it different each day?’ We make sure we always have healthful, high quality meals with great variety as well as everyday standards like burgers.”

On the retail end, Hammel has brought more commercial brands to the bases, established a loyalty card program that has drawn more than 15,000 participants and increased the range of options, from snack bars to delis, to meet customer needs in the different environments.

“It's a joy to really do something that serves our folks in the military,” Hammel says. “It's inspiring to work here.”

On a practical level, given that military enlistment is entirely voluntary, he says he wants to ensure that his dining operations do their part to encourage re-enlistment.

There was always something out of the ordinary about Steve Hammel. When he was a sixth grader, a vacation trip to Miami, where some family friends owned a motel, spurred an interest in the hospitality business. When he returned, he told his teacher he would go into the hotel business when he grew up.

“Many years later after graduating from college with a hotel degree,” he says, “I went back to visit her and she said, ‘You know, in my 30-odd years of teaching, you're the only student that ever stayed the course for what he said he wanted to be!’”