Thursday, December 15, 2005

St. Luke's hospital is in the news!

Usually the Duluth News Tribune gives St. Lukes terrible press, so this is a surprisingly good article. (My dad works at St. Lukes, by the way.)
St. Luke's in Duluth may be the first health system in Minnesota to embrace a trend that has hospitals rethinking menus with an eye on ecologically sound practices.

Branovan said St. Luke's quietly began its organic buying program about 18 months ago with the aim of expanding it slowly. "It started with the idea that we, as a hospital, need to take responsibility for the quality of the products we serve to our population," Branovan said.

Walter Reed should take note. Our dining facility (d-fac, if you want to use the Wally World lingo) is pretty greasy. Hard to find healthy things to eat there. It's extemely cheap, though. And the salad bar almost always has baby spinach.

Here's my favorite section from the St. Luke's article:

Branovan, who trained at the California Culinary Academy and spent 10 years working as a chef in West Coast restaurants (where tater tot-hot dish wasn't held in high regard), said he tried to yank the church-basement classic from the St. Luke's menu when he came to town five years ago.

The change caused a mini-insurrection, and Branovan quickly saw the error of his ways.

"We can make some changes and do the right thing with organics, but you can't take away tater-tot hot dish," Branovan said.

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