At Temple, keeping our patients healthy goes beyond the exam room and the OR. Each day, our Dietary and Food Service departments serve thousands of meals to patients, staff, and visitors. Because we know good food plays an essential role in wellness, we’re committed to promoting healthy eating habits and providing the highest-quality ingredients.
That commitment has once again earned us Health System-wide recognition from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Philadelphia Department of Health, and The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania. We’ve been commended for our extraordinary performance in the Good Food, Healthy Hospitals Initiative: a CDC-funded, statewide project to transform the Commonwealth’s hospital food environments and improve the health of our communities through better nutrition.
Participating hospitals pledge to promote healthcare through positive food choices, including offering fresh fruits and vegetables, nutritionally-dense food, and healthy beverages. They also agree to promote healthy options with signs, posters, and brochures, to provide nutrition information for their meals, and to incentivize purchases of healthy foods. They work to improve community access through farm stands and farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture programs, and food pantries. These hospitals also offer fewer sugar-sweetened beverages, packaged snacks, unhealthy fats, and processed foods.
TUH-Main and Episcopal Campus each earned Platinum Status for achieving all five Good Food, Healthy Hospital Standards (Food and Beverage Purchasing; Food and Beverages Served in Patient Meals; Cafeteria Meals; Catering; and Vending). Jeanes Campus and Fox Chase Cancer Center each earned Gold Status for achieving four Standards (Food and Beverages Served in Patient Meals; Cafeteria Meals; Catering; and Vending).
“These awards speak to the superb work of our Temple Health Dietary and Food Service departments,” says Michael A. Young, MHA, FACHE, President and CEO of Temple Health. “Not only do they work hard to provide our patients with the very best meals, but they also make the delicious, nourishing food our employees enjoy in our cafeterias and cafes every day.”
Shelley Chamberlain, RD, LDN, Healthy Food in Healthcare Specialist for the Good Food, Healthy Hospitals Program, presented these awards to the Dietary and Food Services teams at each of our winning campuses. It was a way to recognize these employees for their hard work, and to honor the vital contributions they make each day. Helping our patients—and our community—feel and stay healthy is our top priority, and we couldn’t do it without them.
