Air Force Commissary Service
Synopsis
The Air Force Commissary Service (AFCOMS) played a pivotal role in the success of commissary shelf stocking contracts, providing significant job opportunities for people with disabilities and Work Centers. Through their leadership and commitment, AFCOMS not only facilitated contracts but also explored expanding opportunities, demonstrating a model for other federal agencies and earning recognition as the 1986 Government Award winner.
The Full Story
One of the best job opportunities for people with disabilities and the Work Centers employing them is commissary shelf stocking. Commissary shelf stocking contracts pay good wages, provide meaningful work for Work Center employees and good skills training for competitive employment, and they put Work Center employees in an integrated environment with people without disabilities. But commissary shelf stocking would not be the success it is for the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Program if it weren’t for the Air Force Commissary Service (AFCOMS).
AFCOMS first demonstrated its leadership and its commitment to people with disabilities when it succeeded in obtaining Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for offering commissary shelf stocking contracts to Work Centers under OMB Circular A-76, a program to encourage Federal agencies to contract out functions performed by government employees to outside enterprises. AFCOMS’ efforts to get Work Centers involved in the A-76 program served as a model for other Federal agencies with service contract opportunities. Currently, Work Centers employing people with disabilities have 26 contracts for shelf stocking at Air Force commissaries, employing nearly 400 people and generating almost $6 million in sales.
AFCOMS hasn’t stopped there. In 1986, headquarters personnel, with the help of Air Force Commissary staff all over the country, began investigating the possibility of expanding other commissary contracts to include warehousing. This initiative represents a tremendous opportunity to provide more jobs for people with disabilities. AFCOMS staff have worked tirelessly to develop these contracts for Work Centers, through a long and complex process. NISH (now SourceAmerica) and Work Centers look forward to an expanded relationship with AFCOMS, and we salute Major General M. Gary Alkire and the AFCOMS staff throughout the nation as our 1986 Government Award winner.
