FORSETH: I’m not sure having the only locally prepared menu selections in the 55 Interior Health facilities should be limited to preparing sandwiches, vegetables, salads, and breakfast items

UPDATE ~~ 3:03pm March 12th:

After posting this story today, I received a response form IHA Media in which they apologized for perhaps not clearly explaining the use of the production kitchen properly.  Please note the following:

The production kitchens provide options to all the IH local hospital kitchens. The local kitchens can basically make anything on site, such as baked chicken or spaghetti, and regularly do. The two production kitchens provide options and support (texture-modified food items) to the local kitchens. Some kitchens might only use one entrée from the production kitchen in a four-week period.

I had also asked IHA if these production kitchens be preparing the 'entree choices for all hospitals in the Interior Health Authority (including Kelowna), up to and including up to Williams Lake? 

Again, the 3:03pm response from IHA indicated they do provide entrée items for all the hospitals but they don’t provide all the entrees. The local kitchens choose which entrees they want to put on their menus, but they also make their own entrees.

Last Friday (March 8^th), Lana Popham’s Ministry of Agriculture announced a new program which she stated would ensure more of the food served to patients at Interior Health facilities is from British Columbia. 

The program, Feed BC, will apparently be increasing the institutional procurement of food grown, harvested or processed by B.C. farmers, fishers and processors.

"Feed BC is a game changer. It’s about working collaboratively to encourage, inspire and support a shift to more B.C. foods in health-care and other government facilities. It’s food as medicine," said Lana Popham, Minister of Agriculture.

"Buying local not only supports the agriculture sector in B.C. and B.C. residents, it contributes to our provincial food security, helping build a more resilient and sustainable food supply.”

Popham was joined by representatives of Interior Health, Sysco Canada and local farmers for a tour of the Penticton Regional Hospital’s regional production kitchen, where they announced the new initiative that will increase the use of B.C. food in Interior Health facilities.

The Penticton Hospital is one of just two facilities that prepare the main entrees for all hospitals within the boundaries of Interior Health – the other being Vernon. 

According to Amanda Smith, Regional Manager (NOK/IH West), Support Services & Regional Production Centre, these two facilities prepare over 60 entrée items that are then made available to local IHA community kitchens. 

Smith then indicated that, “Local kitchens enhance their menus with entrée choices available from the central production kitchen. For example, a lasagna produced in Vernon by IH staff is included in the dinner meal at a health site in Nelson, along with salad and desserts made in house in the Nelson kitchen.”

And said Health Minister Adrian Dix, “Increasing access to B.C.-grown and produced foods in health-care facilities not only improves the freshness and quality of the meals served, it better supports the patients’ experience, outcomes and the livelihood of B.C.’s farmers and producers.”

While hospitals in Penticton and Vernon serve as regional production kitchens making meals and food items served in all 55 Interior Health facilities;

Penticton Regional Hospital

“Almost all Interior Health sites that serve inpatients or individuals in care have their own kitchen or, in rare cases, they are small sites situated close to another site with a kitchen”, Amanda Smith stated.

Still, I wondered, would the Vernon and Penticton production kitchens be preparing the 'entree choices for all hospitals in the Interior Health Authority ... up to and including say Williams Lake?  I asked this as I wondered if no other hospitals and facilities in the region made their own main courses.

The answer was a “Yes for all Interior Health hospitals”

“The production kitchens make entrees and pureed (or texture modified products) that respond to the dietary needs of people with such conditions as swallowing challenges (dysphagia) for all the hospitals. The local site chooses which entrée they want to enhance their daily menu.”

Meantime, Amanda Smith advised that, “The local site chooses which entrée they want to enhance their daily menu. Salads and desserts are freshly made in the local kitchens. Our bread is brought in from local vendors, and our production center makes a small variety of muffins.” 

According to the BC NDP government media release IHA will be receiving over $350,000 in funding over the next year to help implement the program in Interior Health facilities. 

Popham’s Agriculture Ministry went on to say that, the Feed BC initiative with Interior Health will act as a guide for the development of B.C. food procurement strategies that could be easily implemented in other provincial health authorities, as well as other public institutions, such as universities and colleges.

According to McGill University Food and Dining Services, when speaking of eating more locally sourced food, such as is promoted in the 100-mile diet, they stated this;

• ensures that food has passed some of the highest safety standards in the world. Very strict regulations regarding additives, pesticides, herbicides, etc. ensure that Canadian food is safe.

• and that it may have a higher nutrient value, as food that is grown and harvested locally is usually given more time to ripen.

It’s a LONG WAYS however from production facilities to reach some of the more remote facilities such as Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake ... a distance of 250 miles from Vernon and 300 miles from Penticton.  The same can be said for other hospital facilities in far-away communities such as Lillooet, Clearwater, or even Fernie.

Let me just say that I do applaud the initiative to ensure more locally sourced foods are prepared for patients being cared for in Interior Health facilities.

That said, I’m not sure having the only locally prepared menu selections in the interiors 55 IHA facilities should be limited to preparing sandwiches, vegetables, salads, and breakfast items (including eggs) – or meals for special occasions like holiday turkey or ham dinners ... especially for facilities well outside the 100-mile radius of the only two kitchens which prepare ALL entrees for every IHA hospital.

Once again quoting last Fridays media release:

The Ministry of Health and the regional health authorities are supporting Feed BC by annually tracking B.C. food spends, and exploring new opportunities to increase the use of B.C. foods in all health-care facilities.

Is this a good first step?  Probably.

However, I feel certain that the best, freshest, and most nutritious meals would come from on site kitchens.  Ones where they prepare, from scratch, many of the meals from locally sourced fruits, vegetables and meats.

In Kamloops, I’m Alan Forseth, and I’d love to hear your take on this new initiative.  Please post your thoughts below in the Comments Section