Nutrition & Foodservice Edge Magazine - July/August 2021 - 39

2021 NFEF Award
Recipients Announced
FOODSERVICE
DEPARTMENT OF THE
YEAR:
Arkansas Heart Hospital
teamwork through planning, strategizing,
and communicating effectively to cover
all areas, ensuring everyone is taken care
of at all hours of the day. Inspections were
passed with flying colors and each staff
member learned much throughout the
process across several hours of training
and educating one another to run a
successful kitchen and operation.
Arkansas Heart Hospital has earned the
NFEF's 2021 Foodservice Department
of the Year Award. AHH is the
premier cardiac hospital in Arkansas.
Beyond cardiac care, it's also known
as a hospital that delivers outstanding
overall care for the complete patient
experience.
The culinary staff at Arkansas Heart
Hospital is known to deliver the same
care through high-quality, five-star
meal service using fresh and exciting
menu options daily. The AHH culinary
team also oversees various operations
including inpatient tray line, the
café, gift shop, food truck, nutrition
pods, and catering events, all while
communicating and working together
throughout the day to ensure their
department is running at full operating
power.
Laura Walters, MS, CDM, CFPP,
Director of Culinary, shares, " Our team
goes above and beyond each day and
has ownership and accountability in
our department. " In 2021, after the new
hospital was recently built, the team
pulled together to set up the kitchen
and worked through the processes
beforehand to help make opening
day run smoothly. They demonstrate
Through teamwork and innovation, the
culinary staff opened a 24-hour, selfservice
café in their new hospital. Using
barcode technology and preparing fresh
foods that can be scanned and checked
out allows the café to provide employees
and visitors with inviting, heart-healthy
meals at any time, day or night.
During the ice and snowstorms of the
2021 winter, hospital staff provided
patients, visitors, and employees with hot
meals each day and offered snacks and togo
meals to employees staying overnight
to care for their patients from their PopUp
Café.
Arkansas Heart Hospital is a five-star
rated facility delivering five-star results
with fresh foods made daily for their
nourishment pods. In 2019, AHH added
a 320-square foot climate-controlled
greenhouse that provides the culinary
team direct access to fresh ingredients,
allowing heart-healthy and affordable
options for their staff and patients. Each
meal is prepared with top-notch recipes
and fresh ingredients from the garden
for the café and patient tray line. The
culinary staff thrives on providing quality
food with a picture-perfect presentation
and superior ingredients. RDNs and
chefs teamed up to provide educational
materials that recreate and promote
healthy eating recipes, and they now
share these as samples to customers for
free, giving each one a chance to try
something new.
At Arkansas Heart Hospital, resilience
without compromise and compassion
with action are what the culinary team
is made of!
FOODSERVICE
EDUCATION INNOVATOR
OF THE YEAR :
Germaine's Kitchen and Café
of Catholic Charities Oregon
Germaine's Kitchen and Café of
Catholic Charities Oregon has
earned the NFEF's 2021 Foodservice
Education Innovator of the Year Award.
Germaine's Kitchen and Café is a
gluten-free culinary arts program that
delivers a variety of essential skills,
helping students and participants on
a path to success in a professional
kitchen or foodservice operation. This
program offers in-class instruction on
the fundamentals and foundations of
cooking, along with the very important
job/life skills and hands-on learning in
just 16 weeks.
This program is geared towards adults
with intellectual and developmental
Continued on page 40
NUTRITION & FOODSERVICE EDGE | July-August 2021
39
Nutrition & Foodservice Edge Magazine - July/August 2021

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