Vancouver Hospital pilots new menu for patient and planet health

Patients at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) had the opportunity to test out a new healthy menu.

VGH has been offering patients a selection of “new delicious, nutritious and environmentally sustainable menu items” as part of Vancouver Coastal Health’s (VCH) pilot project, for the last six months.

Darcia Pope, VP of Strategy, Innovation, and Planetary Health at VCH says, this is part of their commitment to improving the patient experience and food.

“We started this project with the goal of creating flavourful, comforting meals using fresh, nutritionally dense ingredients so that patients had appealing food options to help them in their healing and recovery,” she said.

“We also recognized that this project presented an opportunity to look at how we could adjust our food services program to be more environmentally sustainable.”

VCH says the menu includes more than 20 new menu items to offer patients different options “incorporating patient preferences and ingredients with lower environmental impacts.”

The project was led by Dr. Annie Lalande, a surgical resident and PhD student in Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She says it is important to keep the planet in mind when feeding people.

“We’ve long used the phrase ‘food is medicine’ and we’re finding that this is true not only for patients but for our planet as well,” says Dr. Annie Lalande.

“Providing tasty, nutritious meals, which is critical to recovery from illness and injury, also presents a significant opportunity to decrease our environmental footprint by focusing on lower-impact ingredients.”

Anne Mackie, a patient at the VGH years ago, knows how food is fuel when trying to get back on your feet.

“It’s the highlight of the day. You know, I mean ‘Gosh, it’s just about suppertime,’ and then it comes, and you think ‘ugh, is this it? Is this what I got to eat?'” she said.

But now, as a patient partner in the project, she’s had an opportunity to taste-test the new menu and give feedback.

“It really kind of changed my way of thinking about how I should be cooking at home for myself,” she said.

Dietitians, clinicians, and planetary health experts have worked alongside Ned Bell, a renowned chef to develop the menu items. More than 20 new dishes have been added, including things like Steelhead Trout with Tomato Miso Dressing, Creamy Coconut Chickpea Curry with Cauliflower and Cashews, served with Mango Chutney and a Korean Gochujang Bowl.

“When you’re in care, you look forward to what you’re going to eat, three meals a day. It’s part of your recovery. We all know that food is medicine, that real food heals. So my goal was delicious but underneath delicious, it had to tick all of the rest of the boxes,” said Bell.

“Working to develop menu items that are sustainable and also appeal to a wide variety of tastes on such a massive scale was challenging, but the work we’ve done here has been so rewarding.”

As part of the project food waste rates were also measured. Project leaders say healthy nutritious food is critical to recovery from illness and injury, and that this was an opportunity to decrease their environmental footprint.

“Food is the single strongest leader when it comes to improving human health and planter health and they are inextricably linked and connected. And so, food systems actually make up one-third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and health care contributes five per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions,” said Tiffany Chiang, Director of Food Service Transformation & Strategic Projects.

Now that the pilot project has concluded — in the coming months, following data analysis, the menu items that patients enjoyed the most will be incorporated into menus across Vancouver Coastal Health.

With files from Kate Walker.