Dining Facility manager recognized as food service executive of the year

  • Published
  • By Brian Brackens
  • 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
Kirtland Air Force Base, NM --  Robert Vick, manager of the Thunderbird Inn dining facility at Kirtland Air Force Base, recently received the 2010 International Food Service Executive Association, Executive of the Year award, recognizing him as a leader and innovator in the food service industry.

Over the past six years, Air Force Material Command has recognized The Thunderbird Inn for excellence in food service and safety as the best in the command, awarding them five gold plates.

In 2005 and 2009, the Thunderbird Inn received the John L. Hennessy award the Air Force's top hospitality honor.

What makes Mr. Vick's achievements extraordinary is that he's legally blind.
At 19, he was assaulted with a pipe, causing massive damage to the occipital lobe of the brain, which led to blindness.

Mr. Vick decided to go into the food industry after the New Mexico Commission for the Blind told him about the Randolph Sheppard Act which, gives blind people the opportunity to work in food service at the state and federal level.

After graduating with a culinary degree from Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute, now known as Central New Mexico Community College, he moved to Los Alamos and ran the food service program for Los Alamos National Labs Johnson Controls building.

Mr. Vick arrived at Kirtland AFB in 2002 and immediately began building on the tradition of excellence.

"We've set a lot of benchmarks here at Kirtland in food service for the entire Air Force, and the Air Force has paved the way for the food industry itself, including the civilian sector," he said. "The civilian world looks at the Air Force dining facility program and takes what we do and uses the techniques that we've developed in their operations."

As a blind person, Mr. Vick has faced many challenges, but that hasn't stopped him.

"The biggest thing when I first started working at Kirtland was proving that a blind person could do the job," he said. "As a person with a disability, the hardest thing is winning people over and making them comfortable with your disability. Everyone with a disability has that. But once you get over the hump, people start looking at you as a normal person, whether you are blind, or missing an arm or leg, they don't even see it anymore. They see you for you. Here at Kirtland, nobody sees me as a blind person. Everyone sees me as a successful contractor that's helping them at this dining facility."

He does all of his own paperwork, including payroll for his 50 employees, using talking computers.

Mr. Vick isn't the only one in the Thunderbird Inn with a disability, 30 of his employees have disabilities.

"Some of my employees can't read or write because of their disabilities, so I've made sure that all of the computers in this facility talk, which helps them do their jobs."

Mr. Vick's cane is the only thing that gives him away as being blind.

He knows exactly what's going on and where everything is located within the dining hall.

"No pun intended, but I can do this with my eyes closed," he said.

Mr. Vick is motivated not by money or recognition, but by the Airmen he serves.

"I have a self-motivating mission, which is taking care of our troops. Tomorrow they may not be here, so we want every single meal to be perfect, the best experience that they ever had."