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The Signature: 2020 Year In Review
RISTORANTE BELLA M
any have called 2020 a “curse” and are already anxious for 2021 to start, and we really can’t blame them. We acknowledge that this year has posed significant global challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With this in mind, as our Bella Etna team looks back on the events that have shaped the past twelve months, we won’t dwell on the trials we faced. Instead, we are focusing on how we rose to the occasion. The year started very fruitfully when the Secretary of the Navy announced that Ristorante Bella Etna was selected for the 2020 Captain Edward F. Ney Memorial award for having the best ashore food service operation in the Navy for the third consecutive year. This was followed by another notable achievement as our very own Signore Agatino Grasso was selected as NAS Sigonella’s Junior Civilian Employee of the Year. We are all aware of what happened in March when COVID-19 was officially declared a worldwide pandemic. It impacted our way of lives as the entire country of Italy, the base, and all food service facilities was put on lockdown, but Ristorante Bella Etna has remained operational and open. With the galley’s dedicated staff and crew, the team was able to seamlessly feed our warfighters in order to continue to provide critical support our nation’s, NATO allies’, and partner nation’s mission. The Ristorante Bella Etna team, consisting of local national employees and military personnel, innovated and blazed the trail of implementing effective science-based COVID-19 mitigation measures. The NASSIG galley was one of the first galleys not only in the region but across the Navy to utilize social distancing, require facemasks, and strictly enforce the hand washing requirement for all patrons. We saw our services reduced from almost 300 seating capacity to 52, and down again to 27, and we finally shifted to take-out meals only. During this time, the galley still averaged 700 customers
a day. From April to mid-June, Ristorante Bella Etna was the only food service establishment that safely remained open to provide meals to service members within the NASSIG community. While shifting to a unique feeding situation, the galley team supported a rigorous turnover between troops from Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force (SPMAG-TF) and Sailors from four Patrol and Reconnaissance Squadrons. With restricted movement in effect, the galley team prepared hundreds of boxed meals daily for the quarantined personnel while maintaining a galley take-out operation. To date, the galley personnel prepared over 317,000 meals, with 51,000 of those meals being delivered to personnel in a Restriction of Movement (ROM) status. April was our busiest and most memorable month as Bella Etna saw our former Food Service Officer Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jonathan Delacruz promoted to Chief Warrant Officer 5 and successfully turned over the operations to another brilliant leader in the food service field, CWO4 Rolando Abad. Abad joined us after completing a successful yet rigorous tour aboard the forward deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) stationed in Yokosuka, Japan. It was a flawless transition which allowed us to reopen the Mess Hall with socially-distanced seating in June. During this time, the galley also went through Commander Naval Installation (CNIC) Five Star Accreditation inspection and received the highest accreditation grade in EURAFECENT region, ultimately resulting in galley nomination as the NEY award finalist for the forthcoming year’s final evaluation. Despite the ever changing guidelines from the local government, CDC and the Navy, Ristorante Bella Etna expertly balanced and implemented the safety measures to also serve numerous special themed meals to include the Navy birthday meal and the most recent Thanksgiving feast. In
