Napoleon reportedly said an army marches on its stomach.
Veterans at the VA Portland Health Care System, Vancouver Campus aren’t doing much marching these days, but they remain keenly interested in what’s served at chow time.
That’s where Jenelle Cruz comes in. As operations manager for the Vancouver Division’s Nutrition and Food Services for two and a half years, Cruz oversees a team of 29 supervisors, chefs, ambassadors and food service workers who try to make a veteran’s stay a bit more palatable.
“I’m not a veteran,” said Cruz, a registered dietitian and nutritionist who oversees meal preparation for an average of 105 veterans being treated at the facility. “I feel this is something I can do to give back to those who are.”
Cruz guided the August 2017 transition away from “cook-chill,” where every lunch and dinner was prepared at the Portland VA Medical Center and trucked over to Vancouver, to one where every meal is cooked here.
Some food preparation, such as cutting up vegetables, is done up to three days before meals are served, but all cooking is done on the same day.
“We prepare everything fresh on-site,” Cruz said.
Her work has been recognized on a national level. Earlier this year, she received the VA’s “Excellence in Food Services” award, the only VA dietitian in the nation to receive that honor. The VA also honors a dietitian for leadership, clinical nutrition care and emerging leadership.
Cruz deflected praise to the chefs and other employees she manages.
“My staff is fantastic,” she said. “I’m very proud of them.”
Veterans have noticed the change in the VA’s food during Cruz’s tenure. Greg Ponzoha, an Army veteran who has been in and out of the VA for several years, remembers what the food was like with cook-chill.
“You couldn’t even identify what it was,” he said near the end of his lunch Tuesday.
At the same table, Marine veteran Charles Boley described the food with a single word: excellent.
“I was thinking it was going to be buffet style, but it’s almost like a restaurant,” he said. “They take your order.”
Cruz said she regularly hears comments from veterans. Some don’t care for Mexican dishes and find tamale pie to be too spicy.
“You get real-time feedback, whether it’s good or bad,” she said.
Nutrition and Food Services also circulates formal surveys to gauge what veterans think of their food.
Cruz said satisfaction scores went from 78 percent to 97 percent after cook-chill was eliminated, and plate food waste was reduced by as much as 70 percent.
Cruz, 35, earned a bachelor’s degree in food science and nutrition from Central Washington University and master’s degree in nutrition and dietetics from Texas Woman’s University in Houston, where she simultaneously did a VA internship.
She didn’t come from a military family, aside from two grandfathers who served. She used her internship as a springboard to a VA career and recently received her 10-year pin.
“I love what I do,” she said. “I probably will be in this role for another 20 years.”
Cruz lives so close to the VA campus that she could walk to work every day, although she admits to being a “fair weather walker.” She also is a vegan working in a job where many veterans still want meat and potatoes.
“I will sample items that have dairy in them for quality control,” she said.
She has purple-dyed hair and numerous tattoos on her chest, arms and all 10 of her fingers.
“I quit counting,” she said about her tattoos. “I want to say it’s 41.”
Cruz aid she heard a couple of comments about her tattoos while working for five years at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, American Lake Division, in Lakewood, but veterans in Vancouver seem more interested in the food.
What might be the most satisfying are comments from veterans who detect the smell of dinner wafting through the hallways of the Vancouver Division’s Community Living Center.
“That creates a more homelike environment for the veterans,” she said. “Sometimes the littlest of things can make a huge impact in their day.”
