My name is Gabrielle Hopper. My job here is as a cook.
I'm a "lineman", as I like to call myself.
As a lineman, you have to physically put food on the plate, and you have a hand in patients' happiness
and that's something that I learned very quickly here.
I have to work hand-in-hand with a great, top-notch team
that prepares fresh food here and I also clean up at the end of the night.
I am second shift so I get on my hands and knees
and scrub those knobs and scrape those tables off.
Being a cook isn't always glamorous, but the reason why I'm here is to be impactful
and to learn a different aspect of the culinary world.
Learning how to narrate care through what I do as an art
and as a job, because I'm one of the 1% that actually loves what they do.
It's very impactful work.
It means a lot to me to do patients' trays because I'm learning how to work with more compassion
and have a different lens than what I had before
in a restaurant, in fast food, in retail food services.
It's a completely different lens, so it means a growing opportunity,
it means a lesson in life
to actually have such an impact on a sick persons' day
or somebody who's in the hospital
isn't always here for the best reason in the world
and just to bring that little spark underneath a dome lid
on a truck to your room is so huge.
and I'm lucky to be on this team.
I am a cook. I've been here 13 years in November.
I wanted to join UNC Health to expand on my cooking and learn more and I have.
My day-to-day responsibilities is preparing food for breakfast
and then we also do lunch, and we prep food throughout the day.
Some of my favorite aspects with the job is being able to help with some of the recipes
and come up with new things and also being able to try new recipes and serve them to the patients.
It's nice preparing good, hot meals for the patients
and when they give you a high five or a good comment on one of the cards it makes you feel really good
and it makes you want to continue cooking those good meals for each and every patient.
It's been amazing working here for 13 years. I've made wonderful friendships, life-long friendships.
If you're interested in joining UNC Health as a cook, you'll absolutely love it.
You get great benefits, PTO, and you meet some amazing people.
I am a dietetic assistant/ tray runner.
I've been with UNC Health for exactly a year on August 24th.
Some of my day-to-day responsibilities would be to ensure that the patient
gets what they need nutritional wise. Like assembling the trays
and running the trays. We also get placed on tray lines to help assemble
and also we help to check the tickets when the tray goes to the truck.
We check the tickets for all the things that were supposed to be on the tray on top of the things that are highlighted
for us to get like coffees, smoothies, or ice creams, or such.
Just stepping into someone else's world, just being well accepted in someone that's very welcome
like, "Come on in." It makes me feel good to know that I'm being an actual part of health
and their actual nutrition and being part of their meal and that moment in their day.
Being here and just meeting people you don't know and just having a big amount of co-workers
It's amazing that the people who will embrace you that actually love what they do. You can feel it.
They exude it. You can see the passion in how people actually get their job done and it's very well worth it.
It's very rewarding within itself. The support, the benefits, the opportunities that you have
and what you have at your fingertips once you are a very good capable and diligent employee.