It would be nice to have the luxury of opting out of eating in the mess however the charge for food is stopped directly from my pay. As it is I already have to go out and buy fresh fruit etc each week to ensure that I can eat a healthy diet.
I have no problem with civilian contractors making a profit so long as it is not to the detriment of the service that they are supposed to provide. The fact that the mess accommodation in many cases is in a state of disrepair due to age cannot be blamed on the contractor but they could at least make an effort to provide the best with whats available and have a little flexibility. When the messes were service run there was usually a fairly simple route to redress through the chain of command. These days everything has to go through the contract monitoring team and at the end of the day in my experience it is rare that you get a satisfactory outcome.