2 min read
Written by Marc Xuereb
Monica Kidd, a Newfoundland doctor, visited Waterloo Region to interview people involved in efforts to improve hospital food. The story she wrote ended up on the front page of Reader’s Digest Canada’s March 2012 issue.
Quoted in the story is Tammy Quigley of St Mary’s Hospital, who describes the challenges of introducing healthier and local food into a system where most food is brought in frozen and “rethermalized.”
The story also makes reference to My Sustainable Canada’s efforts to help health care facilities monitor and increase their local food purchases. Brendan Wylie-Toal, MSC’s Local Food Coordinator, is quoted in the story about the potential of health care facilities to make a big impact on local food sales with even a small percentage shift in their buying habits.
More Waterloo Region content includes a reference to Public Health’s Food Miles report as a justification for sourcing more food locally.
Above all, author Monica Kidd makes a passionate plea for hospitals to start caring about the quality of the food they serve because it is in the interests of patient health. She demonstrates that hospitals like Scarborough General Hospital and many in the US and UK have already made big changes, and makes the case for Canadian hospitals to follow suit.
Read the whole story at: http://www.readersdigest.ca/magazine/true-stories/can-we-cure-hospital-food.