Transcriber: Denise RQ Reviewer: Reiko Bovee
Imagine you've just had surgery.
You're groggy, you're waken up from the anesthetic,
you're tired, there're tubes in your arms,
and it's been about 18 hours since you had anything to eat.
So you are starving.
You anxiously await
the arrival of the hospital tray,
and when it arrives, you lift the lid,
to uncover two dry pieces of roast beef
an ice cream scoop of lean mashed potatoes,
and there's some boiled peas rolling around on the plate!
There's a plastic cup of cold coffee
and a little container of fruit cocktail, that's come out of a can.
And no butter and no salt on the tray
continue the theme of tastelessness.
You could also end up with this tray.
Hospital food is made
with the cheapest available ingredients
using the least amount of human contact possible,
to minimize on the cost of labor.
We live with the privilege of universal health care,
but some parts of the system do not work.
We boast about our innovative
and uncompromising medical care system
but we have completely dismissed the importance
of wholesome, nutritious food in this effort.
Currently in Ontario,
it costs about 1,200 dollars a day for a hospital bed,
and the average length of stay
is between four and six days.
Yet, we spend under ten dollars a day
to feed a patient.
And that ten dollars
gets you three meals worth of a bland, monochrome,
edible food-like substances.
(Laughter)
And because of this,
hospital food has become famously ridiculed.
Now, I need to be clear about something here.
The poor quality of food served to patients in a hospital
has nothing to do
with the skill and dedication
of the hospital kitchen staff.
And everything to do
with what they are given to work with.
Hospital cooks across the province
have been making it work for years
with increasingly narrowed budgets.
And they all know
that the food that are serving to patients
is not the best that they could be serving.
The truth of this lies in the waste.
Just over 40%, in some cases,
just over 40% of the food,
that is put on patient trays
is returned to the kitchen.
This means that almost half my friends,
almost half of the food,
that we serve our patients in a hospital
just takes the long road to the garburator.
And when surveyed,
patients give a mediocre review
shrugging their shoulders, saying:
"Well, for a hospital food, it's not that bad."
I am here today to tell you, my friends,
that our standards are far too low.
I am sick and tired of seeing more lousy evidence
of years worth of budget cuts, aren't you?
Thank you.
(Laughter)
The situation is that bad.
And what we need now is change.
We must remember that this is our system
and our money that is being so terribly misspent.
But there's good news.
There is a new vision for hospital food
and it is one that puts wholesome, sustainably-sourced fresh food
at as high a priority as the medical care that you receive.
I have just started working on a project
at a hospital here in Toronto,
to uplift the food culture and redefine hospital food.
And I am here today, to share my ideas
for a new vision for food in hospitals.
The most compelling reason
to serve hospital patients good food
is because it's simply the right thing to do.
It is more respectful to serve sick people good, real food.
Imagine a scenario in a hospital kitchen
where they receive farm fresh deliveries of produce
and the staff work busily
making beautiful meals with love and care.
On the tray might be a bowl of Congee
or a little simple salad
or even one perfectly ripe juicy peach.
Everything on the tray
is exactly what the patient ordered
in a conversation with the human being
who visits them at bedside everyday.
This will create a system that actually works.
And we can all be proud of this next step
in our continued leadership in health care around the world.
We have a real opportunity here,
to make a small investment now
for greater savings and rewards later.
Spending more money on food in hospitals
will reduce our impact on the health care system in the future.
Investing in the labor required to make that fresh food
will create a culture of security for hospital kitchen staff
who constantly feel like their jobs
are on the chopping block
due to incessant rounds of budget cuts.
This is Debbie.
Debbie is our lead cook in the kitchen.
And Debbie has recently traded in her usual hospital scrubs
for 28 year-old chef whites that she dusted off from the laundry room.
Because she is so thrilled to finally be cooking again.
Now, the Ontario cherries on top of this
(Laugther)
is that good food for patients in a hospital
is also good for business.
There is an opportunity here
to make a substantial reinvestment
into a local economy.
And the buying power of hospitals
can really, really nurture
agricultural and local economies,
giving our farmers some much needed job security.
Ontario strawberries were the first things
that hit the trays this season at the hospital,
and the farmer who grew them
was over the moon with excitement
at the thought that his fruit
was being served to patients in a hospital.
In a message to me, he wrote:
"So you mean, you are actually going to be using
Ontario tax dollars to buy Ontario food to feed Ontario patients?"
(Laughter)
A truly sustainable food culture
involves the reanimation of all of the people
involved in the journey, from farm to plate.
This is about celebrating
all of the hands involved in getting meals on the table
and the collective effort that's required to pull this off.
In addition to all of the good food on the trays
is a note from the kitchen and the farm
wishing patients a speedy recovery.
And on the farm, is this sign with a stick, saying:
"Earmarking rows of crops for folks in the hospital."
Isn't that a great photo?
We can no longer let budgets dictate
how we care for patients,
and we must, right now, reinvest
in the value of human effort.
Hospitals are places where we heal,
we nurse wounds, and we recover.
And hospitals have an incredible opportunity right now
to take a leadership role in the good food revolution.
A sustainable food culture around the hospital,
will create a community food hub around the hospital,
extending the principles of health and wellness
far beyond the four walls of the building.
There is a weekly farmers market on site
and cooking classes for patients
so that they learn to feed themselves
just as well when they go home.
Local chefs and farmers are regular members
of the hospital community,
visiting to cook special meals
and to teach workshops to staff and patients.
On the trays, on the other side of the note,
is a recipe.
Formatted to look like a prescription
sending a very clear message
that good food is just as much a part of recovery
as rest and medication.
And in the gift shop, they sell cookbooks,
and jars of soup, and dry mixes
for the baked goods that are on the patient menu.
Because patients swear
that the best they have ever eaten,
was when they were in the hospital.
My friends, we can redefine hospital food.
And we can make hospital food
the standard by which excellence in food is measured.
Our health and our lives are surely worth the effort.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)