OPERATIONS ADVENTIST HEALTH HOWARD MEMORIAL: PLANT-FORWARD, PATIENT-FORWARD
major focus of Roots’ chock-full sal- ad bar. In addition to community acco- lades, Roots also received a Blue Zones Project Approved designa- tion last year. The initiative certi- fies restaurants that offer “smarter choices” in the spirit of the so-called five global Blue Zones, where a lon- gevity study found that people reach age 100 at a rate ten times greater than that in the United States. The garden-kitchen partnership has been a success, and it depends on close collaboration, Maples says. When he took the FSD position in 2022, he noticed a few areas for op- erational improvement—like over- production of Asian greens that the kitchen couldn’t use fully. “You could see these areas where a little more communication could make a big difference,” Maples says. “And that was what [the gar- den team] was expressing: asking if they could come to our monthly meetings. We said, sure, and why don’t you come meet with the cook who’s writing the menus, and….? It went from there.” Now Maples’ team is tightly knit with garden supervisor Melissa Bouley and her staff. They inform each another’s planning on a long- and short-term basis. That begins with a big meeting at the start of the season to discuss what the garden team plans to plant, and what the kitchen staff would like for them to grow. Each day Bouley sends an email with the list of produce and volume of each item. “It’s very friendly, and we’re go- ing to share whatever we can,” says lead cook Geudiel Rodriquez. “We don’t hold anything back, and be- cause we share everything, they can take whatever they need from that for their own work. The garden is a totally different thing from the kitchen, [and yet] it’s a [key part] of what we do each day.” COMMUNICATION IS KING As goes the advice for just about any
GET TO KNOW ADVENTIST HEALTH HOWARD MEMORIAL’S MARK MAPLES
See what’s in store for Maples’ operation, which was named FSD’s October Foodservice Operation of the Month. Q: What is it that makes your operation excel? They are proud. Willits is a small town, and the town supports us. They know Roots puts out a tasty, healthier product—so they trust us and talk us up, which gives our people great pride. It’s a culture that helps a lot. When people have pride, it’s so much easier for them to be motivated to put out good product. All our staff here at Howard want to make sure that the patients are eating the best-tasting meal they can, receiving the best customer service, and getting the healthiest food. It's im- portant for them because of that pride they take in their work. Q: What are your goals for the operation in the coming year? Our goals always involve improving, because no matter how good something is, you can always improve. Pertaining to the garden, we have meetings com- ing up in the next month or two to start establishing growing plans for next year. We don't necessarily have a specific volume goal like I set the year be- fore—because coming out of peak COVID, we thought, ‘Hey, let's increase our volume as we open back up to the public to try and get people coming in here.’ Now, we have so many people coming in. They treat it as actual local restau- rant, rather than a hospital cafeteria. So instead of a volume goal we’re focus- ing on increasing our quality and varying our options for customers. We also plan to keep educating our staff, as we want them to have tools and skills not only for here but also in case they ever leave here. We love retention of course, but you also don’t want to put a cap on anyone. Training here doesn’t just ben- efit the department; it also benefits the individual.
type of relationship, increased com- munication goes a long way. That’s Maples’ top tip for other operators looking to improve collaboration within their own team or across teams: Before you begin building systems or changing operations, just talk to each other. “People have to be communicat- ing properly and working together as a team first—otherwise, it doesn't matter how good your systems are, because they're not going to work,” he adds. That said, don’t have a meeting
just for a meeting’s sake, Maples says; cancel that standup this week if there’s not much to say. He also recommends avoiding microman- aging these relationships: Set up the necessary conversations, foster a culture where collaboration is ex- pected and celebrated, and allow connections to blossom naturally. “Teams build rapport and gain trust by talking,” Maples says. “From there, it’s like: Now that we are comfortable with each other and working as a team, imagine what we can accomplish.”
FSD QUARTERLY
Q4 2024
30
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