Sudbury hospital to boost menus through Local Food Challenge

Health Sciences North in Sudbury is joining a challenge to increase the amount of local food it serves to patients, staff and visitors.

The hospital has been chosen to be part of this year’s Local Food Challenge. Their goal is to increase local food content — food that is grown, raised or processed in the province — by 15 per cent over the next year for its patient menu.

The manager of food services with the hospital said the hospital currently serves about 11 per cent local food.

"More of our vegetables, that kind of stuff is the easiest things to switch over,” Kathy Berger said.

“I know Maple Leaf has some pork products that are strictly Ontario. So if we switch some of our pork products we can do that. Chicken breasts — there's some opportunities there as well."

Berger adds the hospital will also serve more produce that is in season to help meet the goal.

HSN is one of 10 organizations in Ontario chosen to be part of the 2014 Local Food Challenge.

The 2014 Local Food Challenge is an initiative of the Greenbelt Fund, a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable agriculture in the province and is supported by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

“This Challenge is an exciting opportunity for us to provide our patients with more local food, because good nutrition means better health and quicker recovery times,” Berger stated in a hospital press release issued Wedneday.

'Prepared from scratch'

Joining HSN in the Local Food Challenge will be Marek Hospitality, which runs the Rock Garden Café, the main cafeteria at the Ramsey Lake Health Centre. Marek will use the challenge to promote and increase awareness of its current use of locally procured items.

“Led by chefs, we create food that is alive with flavour and nutrition,” stated director of retail foodservices for Marek Hospitality at HSN in the release.

“Prepared from scratch, using locally sourced ingredients, this challenge gives us the opportunity to track our purchases, increase the local food we have in our menu, and see how we stack up against the other nine organizations participating in the challenge.”

HSN and Marek Foods are planning a number of initiatives over the year to promote the local Food Challenge. They include seeking out opportunities to buy more food produced in northeastern Ontario. Currently, all the fresh potatoes used in HSN’s patient kitchen and the Rock Garden Café are provided by a Sudbury-area supplier.

Other initiatives include hosting food fairs, employee recipe contests, and collaborating on menu ideas to coordinate with seasonal products featuring Ontario ingredients.

We want patients to feel comfortable about the food they eat here.- Kathy Berger, manager of food services at HSN.

HSN will also use the challenge to educate patients about how much of the food they eat while in hospital is prepared on site.

“There’s a perception that all hospital meals are premade, shipped here, and just reheated, but only about half of our patient food is purchased already prepared,” Berger said.

“In our kitchen, we produce our mashed potatoes, rice, noodles, and sandwiches. We cook chicken breasts from scratch, we cook our eggs and hot cereals here, and we also prepare some bakery items. We want patients to feel comfortable about the food they eat here, and we’ll be looking to add even more Ontario foods to our menu.”