Ontario Council of Hospital Unions rep Kevin Cook and Alex Jackson with ‘Sustain’ talk hospital food standards with local media Monday afternoon. Photo by Kate Adams.
Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver started a food fight with schools in the USA and now the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) wants to follow suit and start their own food revolution in Ontario hospitals and long-term care facilities.
Currently Alex Jackson and his group ‘Sustain’ are waging a food war with hospitals in the United Kingdom calling it what else but “The Campaign for Better Hospital Food”.
Jackson, who is on a fact finding awareness campaign with OCHU officials, says on average 82,000 meals got to waste in the UK hospital system simply because the food is dreadful and cause for national disgrace.
“It’s unhealthy,” He tells reporters during a media event Monday afternoon.
He notes that the food is full of unsaturated fats and salt which is counterproductive to the mission of doctors and hospitals.
“It’s just low quality, not very appetizing, patients don’t eat it a lot think it is uneatable so as a result it really all goes into the bin,” he says.
“Up to 70 percent of meals so 7 out of 10 meals goes straight into the bin uneaten.”
He also notes that this wasted food is covered by tax dollars.
“It’s all our hard earned money being spent on this food.”
“And really we just came to the conclusion enough is enough. So for the last two years we’ve been calling on our government to introduce new legislation to require hospital food to meet specific standards.”
Jackson says the campaign is making headway as legislators have started to introduce some the standards like healthy nutrition, local production and high quality that they have been pushing for.
“Our government is now committed to giving hospitals more money who serve better food and who get their food to meet specific standards.”
Regional OCHU Vice-President Louis Rodrigues, a chef at the Kingston General Hospital currently on a sabbatical, says there used to be pride in the work he and his colleagues did but now all they do is boil-a-bag food production.
“Some of it (food) looks like it was made in a dishwasher,” he says.
“We used to do everything at the local and what we’re trying to do is say look let’s keep our eyes open, let’s be concerned for our parents and grandparents.”
He says meals in Ontario hospitals and long-term homes need to be cooked in house with local produce (when in season) and where standards of care and control can truly be practiced.
“We’re not suggesting that you’re going to grow everything here in North Bay that’s not what we are suggesting at all, but is there farm space that people could get into growing. Is it carrots and if there is a need for it the farmers will grow carrots,” he says.
The campaign is just kicking off and the team wants to hear from the public about how they view hospital food locally.
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