World Food Day is October 16 and David Loganbill, Hillcrest South’s Director of Food and Nutrition Services, says it is an opportunity to bring attention to sustainability and food waste.
David, who has been working in the food service industry for most of his career, is incredibly passionate about food and the ability to use it to heal. “The patients’ meals are a big part of their day and being able to provide healthy options that are good, fresh and flavorful really motivates me to come to work every day.” He adds, “Patients don’t always get a choice in their health care, but we give them a choice of what they eat. Giving the patient that choice and giving our employees that break from their day so they can enjoy a meal with each other, that’s what really keeps me going and engages me.”
In his role, David applies his knowledge and customer service experience while caring for a population in need, which fuels his passion. “I like helping people and using food as a means to heal,” he shares.
When it comes to thinking about why World Food Day is important, David notes, “We have a food scarcity issue in this world and there are things that everybody can do to help. We can waste less food and get more food to more people.”
He has taken this into consideration at Hillcrest South and has consciously made the effort to cut down on food waste at the hospital and create sustainability opportunities with his team. He explains, “We have a lot of measures in place to eliminate waste. When we make extra food, we track it or give it away and make our team aware of the amount of food they’re creating so we can be efficient with it. We have a multi-disciplinary team in place examining food waste in the whole hospital. They look at what the floors are using and then communicate that to us so we can provide more of what they need and less of what they are not using.”
“We’re a scratch kitchen here so a lot of what we do has to be deliberate. Our whole team is conscious about that and is really good about identifying opportunities in our department. Our executive chef creates every menu that we execute. We have a rotating menu for our patients that we are constantly making adjustments to just so we can keep them happy and continue serving top notch product. We have the privilege of interacting with everybody - the patients, employees, and family members of patients - and we have an impact on everybody’s day through the food that we serve.”