Military families overseas find commissary shortages

Troops and families in some areas of Europe and the Pacific have been frustrated to find empty shelves in military commissaries over the last few weeks — empty for different reasons.

Commissary officials blamed customs delays and distribution problems in Europe, and the ongoing negotiations between the Pacific Maritime Association and unions representing dock workers at West Coast ports.

They said they expect the situation to improve in Europe no later than Jan. 14. But for customers in the Pacific, the problems continue.

"The challenges to supplying our stores in the Pacific are ongoing, and with continued West Coast port delays, we cannot determine when cargo movement patterns will return to normal," said Kevin Robinson, spokesman for the Defense Commissary Agency.

Customers at some commissaries in Europe started seeing problems a few days before Christmas.

"At European ports, sea containers were unable to clear customs when that process shut down and stalled deliveries of perishable items from Dec. 18 to 24," Robinson said.

Compounding the problem, system failures between the commissary agency's business system and its warehouse management system affected delivery of frozen food items at a cold storage plant in Kaiserslautern, Germany, he said. Nonperishable items and produce were unaffected by the cold storage plant issues.

A military wife said she visited the commissary at RAF Lakenheath, England, on Sunday to find shortages that "made my mouth drop. No lettuce, no salad, no orange juice, no chicken, no bread, hardly any yogurt and cheese, and half the fruits and vegetables were gone."

"I saw a lot of frustrated people. People upset and facing off with employees who didn't know what to tell them," she said.

Robinson said shipments to Hawaii, Guam, South Korea, mainland Japan and Okinawa have been delayed up to 10 days. This has affected the ability of commissaries to keep shelves stocked with products such as yogurt, luncheon meat, butter, fresh bone-in meat and fresh pork.

The military wife at Lakenheath expressed concern for young troops who use the commissary, especially those who use it for their Women, Infants and Children Overseas Program, which provides vouchers for nutritious foods such as milk, cheese, fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, infant formula and infant cereal.

The vouchers can be used only in overseas commissaries and shops operated by the exchanges.