Hospitals try to overcome bad food reputation by going local

Hospitals try to overcome bad food reputation by going local

Eight months ago Kingston General Hospital decided to change food providers by contracting a company Compass Group, from Mississauga (from a UK based group). The changes includes patient menus, the cafeteria and a new coffee shop.

Off course the  workers union OPSEU fighting the decision saying that contracting out the food services will have an impact not only on keeping workers but a far reaching and negative impact on our community.

Jim Flett, KGH COO says that  Compass, which already provides services in other hospitals, currently uses, on average, 21 per cent locally grown produce.

While our local hospital will truck frozen food from Toronto, other hospitals in Ontario are trying to make a difference by shopping local.

In this week news, another hospital - St. Michaels of Toronto is  trying to change by serving fresh, locally grown produced food on its patient menus. Dessert will be a fruit crisp made with blueberries from the Cedar Lane Blueberry Farm in Simcoe. Following the blueberries, St. Mike’s plans to feature fresh Niagara peaches and locally-grown corn on the cob on its patient menus.

Including more local food is a challenge for the cash-strapped institutions, which typically have less than $8 a day to spend on three meals and two snacks per patient.

"We made a commitment to increasing a footprint in the public sector for local foods,” says Carol Mitchell, Agriculture Minister.

Local food tastes better and is healthier, she says. And increasing consumption helps Ontario farmers and is more environmentally friendly than trucking it from afar, she adds.

 Only 20 per cent of hospital food originates in Ontario, according to a survey of 33 Ontario hospitals by the group, My Sustainable Canada (http://mysustainablecanada.org/), a not-for-profit organization that does research and policy work on sustainable consumption.

 Other hospitals endeavoring to use more local food include The Scarborough Hospital and St. Joseph’s Health Centre in Guelph. Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay is hoping to do so soon.

Maybe Kingston General Hospital Board of Directors could take notes and do what seems to be right - buy local, help our farmers.



http://mysustainablecanada.org/

For a full article (July 25'11): http://www.healthzone.ca/health/newsfeatures/research/article/1030362--hospitals-try-to-overcome-bad-food-reputation-by-going-local

KGH article: http://www.kingstonthisweek.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2851865

 Note: I am not a KGH worker, but I support the cause - Buying area vegetables and support our local farmers.