The Scarborough Hospital has received a $191,000 grant from the provincial government and the Greenbelt Fund to support an exciting new project that will see more fresh, local food cooked from scratch served to inpatients at the General campus.

“The Scarborough Hospital is one of the few hospitals in the GTA that still has a full kitchen and produces patient meals from scratch,” said Anne Marie Males, Vice President of Patient Experience at The Scarborough Hospital. “We’re calling this project ‘ReFRESHing our Menu’ because we’re capitalizing on the strength of our existing food services team, while also offering our patients a new and diverse menu of meal choices made with healthy, Ontario-grown food.”

In addition to increasing the amount of local food used in patient meals, the Greenbelt Fund grant will help the hospital upgrade its kitchen facilities, introduce a new bedside ordering process, and train staff on scratch cooking methodologies.

Toronto-based Chef and local food advocate Joshna Maharaj has been hired to work with the kitchen staff in creating the more than 20 new recipes that will be featured on the patient menu.  As well, the hospital has partnered with the organizations 100km Foods Inc. and Local Food Plus to assist with instituting a local food procurement system.

“Another important part of our project is education,” said Males. “As we build our new menu, we also want to build awareness with our patients, visitors, staff and community about the importance of fresh, healthy, local food to wellness, and the positive impact buying local has on our economy and environment.”

Situated in the most diverse community in Canada, The Scarborough Hospital (TSH) delivers high-quality patient care at two hospital campuses and six satellite sites. The Scarborough Hospital is a regional centre for dialysis and is renowned for its sexual assault care centre and mental health programs. Affiliated with the University of Toronto, TSH is also a referral centre for vascular surgery, pacemakers and corneal implants.

For more information, please contact:
Julie Dowdie
Communications Officer
The Scarborough Hospital
(416) 438-2911 ext. 6770
jdowdie@tsh.to