OPERATIONS
The Morrison Healthcare team often hosts special events complete with fun new menu items to brighten patients' days.
scores of events like a Mother’s Day charcuterie board sale , holiday mar- kets, and special meals. Perhaps the quintessential exam- ple, however, is a summer pig roast and luau that truly brought together the foodservice team’s three areas of focus: patients and their families, hospital staff and community businesses. Executive Chef Cody Dodson was buzzing after attending a Morrison research and development program called MasterWorks, and Herrmann had just returned from a vacation in Hawaii. They decided to purchase a whole local pig, roast it Hawaiian style and serve Kalua pulled pork in the hospital’s courtyard. Dodson shared the plan with a hospital staffer who is from the Marshall Islands (Springdale has a sizable Marshallese population). The staffer loved the idea and asked: “Do you need hula dancers? Because I know some.” The luau was on, complete with a hula. Families gathered to dine on the pork from the local farmer, doctors and nurses spent some time in the sun, and pediatric patients enjoyed the show. For the second half, the dancers moved inside to perform for patients unable to come to the courtyard. The team no- ticed a patient clapping and giggling— and the patient’s mother weeping.
“
I think it’s important to share the wealth and spread the joy wherever you can. Since we opened, we’ve challenged ourselves to think outside the box, and to bring people together.”
- Megan Herrmann
“The mom came up to us and said, ‘I just want to thank you guys. This is the first time that they’ve been out of their room in four days. They don't want to come out of the room. But seeing these girls dance completely changed them,’” Dodson recalls. “That’s why we do these things: to help our kids here enjoy life,” he adds. “Meanwhile we’re supporting the farmer, we're supporting the local hula club, and we're getting the community together to experience something that they probably would have never seen outside of the hospital.” ‘THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN PIECE’ Not every day is a special event, but the
foodservice team works to make Ar- kansas Children’s Northwest’s patients and families feel special every day. Dodson performs “rounds” like those of the physicians in the hospital, meeting most of the patients one-on- one. While handing out oatmeal choc- olate chip cookies encased in a package depicting Dodson as a superhero, he’ll introduce himself, learn patients’ pref- erences and meet their families. “You see them frequently, and you see the stress and the anguish that the family goes through right along with the child. We try to ease that as much as we can through food,” Herrmann says. “Some kids come in and all they want is a few bites of ramen noodles. We
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