What does it take to serve local food to hospital patients?
Posted: March 26, 2015
Categories: GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Members
The Choices for Ontario Food project was initiated by the University Health Network (UHN) Department of Energy and Environment, who recently published their findings from a year-long project exploring the opportunities to increase local food procurement for the UHN community. Through outreach methods such as idea crowdsourcing and conversation cafes, over 700 members of the UHN community – patients, staff, and visitors – provided input to the project. See our previous post about the project’s idea crowdsourcing.
Some key findings related to in-patients and food procurement became clear by connecting with decision makers within the hospitals. The team found that Toronto hospitals present a unique opportunity and challenge as patients have a variety of cultural needs and preferences, but these must be matched by what the institution’s procurement criteria, nutrition requirements and safety guidelines allow. More specific findings include general preference for individually packaged items, and an average budget for meals at $30-$35 per patient, per day (including the cost of labour).
The Energy & Environment team created a 3-minute video which provides a comprehensive explanation of how local food procurement functions in hospitals across Ontario. Learn about the internal management system, such as how diet profiles are created and how accessibility needs are met, and where value chain capacity needs to grow to meet these institutional procurement needs.
At this point, there is no unified voice on food in the healthcare community and there are many complexities and challenges that exist relating to food safety requirements, efficiency, budgeting, and non-cooking kitchen models. However, there are some directions provided for future systemic work to take root:
- Multi-hospital collaboration
- Patient-centred approach
- Developing a culture of nutrition in health care
More information is also available in the team’s 4-page case study, Exploring the Place of Ontario Food at University Health Network and in a Prezi exploring the mapped ecosystem. Visit the Talkin’ Trash with UHN website for further details on the project and join the Talkin’ Food Team to get involved.
