A presentation on the food and nutrition services offered by the Sun Country Health Region grabbed the attention of the board of directors when they met in Estevan on March 25.
Shelley Miller-Hertes, nutrition services director, oversees a staff of 183 people that includes two managers, along with herself.
Miller-Hertes explained during the PowerPoint session, she handled the purchasing part of the $7.25 million program that delivers 1,300 meals per day to residents and patients in 16 facilities where food is served by Sun Country. That amounts to more than 475,000 meals a year.
About $600,000 is recovered for meals purchased through catered events each year.
The majority of the meals are served to long-term care residents and in one facility, there are 17 menu changes throughout one rotation while the other sites have 34 menu changes in their rotations. That helps reduce the likelihood of a meal becoming boring or frequent presentations of foods some patients and residents don’t always prefer.
“The meals are homemade and we watch the sodium, fat and sugar content constantly,” said Miller-Hertes.
The quantity of food served is dependent on the individual patient or resident and the system is now recognizing those who eat less or, in the case of long term-care residents, foods they will ignore, thereby leading to less waste.
Delivery carts allow servers to bring more food to more people in a timely manner. Meaning that in larger facilities, more people are eating at the same time.
“We’ll start our popular barbecues on Fridays, probably beginning in May,” she added.
The service includes Meals on Wheels, where it was noted the volunteer delivery people in each community are genuinely appreciated by the people they serve. Miller-Hertes said these meals are often designed to allow for left-overs that can be consumed later by the recipients.
Recent surveys tracked such things as food temperatures at delivery as well as texture and presentation with a 60 per cent success rating, which is considered very good in a field of diners with varying degrees of taste and preferences. “You also have to take into consideration the health of the consumer, which may not be very good at the time,” said Miller-Hertes. “Or they could be restricted to certain types of food for two or three days at a time, especially those who are hospital patients in acute care.”
The food services director pointed to safety precautions in ergonomically designed kitchens that have accessible shelving (not too high) and load weights that generally don’t exceed 50 pounds. She said on occasion there is the need for two-person lifts of some products to avoid accidents.
Miller-Hertes said there is also consistency in using one supplier for many items, but some goods, such as dairy and bakery products are procured from as many as 35 to 38 suppliers for the sake of freshness and delivery efficiency. Some suppliers offer volume discounts, she said.
Employees are prohibited from placing or receiving food orders for personal use and the inventory is controlled from the health region’s head office in Tatagwa View in Weyburn.
Three meals a day for hospital patients is budgeted at $35 for ingredients with other meals generally costing out at about $7 per meal, she reported. The employee salary costs for preparing and delivering meals, amounts to about $29 a day.
Miller-Hertes said there is a challenge in hiring and retaining journeymen cooks, which are required by the health region. Because of this fact, some under qualified cooks are hired and paid a higher wage rate while they receive training under apprenticeship programs to attain journeyman status. The process is not easy, but the incentives are there to make it a compelling option for those who enjoy the profession, she said.
Preparers and servers also have to take an eight-hour food safety course within six months of their employment.
When asked how the facilities react to last minute ‘no-shows’ on the food cooking or preparation lines, Miller-Hertes said there are often former food service employees available either on staff, or in the community, who are willing to step into the breach on short notice, and in some instances, food preparation details can be reduced so that the less-trained staffers can complete the jobs. Those instances are rare and the region has never been stuck in a desperate situation on the food prep and delivery scene, even with severe weather conditions to contend with on occasion, she said.
