Family Business

Cory Perez, retail manager with Morrison at 600-bed Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune City, N.J., didn’t mean to follow his mother, Betty Perez, senior director of food and nutrition services at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, into healthcare foodservice. FSD talked with Cory Perez to find out how much of an influence his mother, an IFMA 2009 Silver Plate winner, had on him entering into non-commercial foodservice.

“My degree is in business administration with a concentration in management. I went to Ramapo College of New Jersey in Mahwah. Getting into healthcare foodservice happened by accident. I started at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, N.Y., when I was in school because it worked out well with my schedule. I worked there for three and a half years before moving to Jersey Shore last month.

There was always something that I found attractive about healthcare in general, especially foodservice because it’s a way to help the healing process without being a doctor or nurse.

When I got into healthcare, my mom didn’t have that much of an effect on the decision because it was an opportunity and the hospital was willing to work with my schedule. She played such a huge role in everything else. There wasn’t one specific conversation that we had that made me want to get into foodservice. She always said that no matter what you do, you have to be passionate and love what you do.

In a small way my mom’s health scare—a ruptured brain aneurysm in 2007—did affect me wanting to work in a hospital because throughout her ordeal her treatment was outstanding. It had a lot to do with her position within the hospital that set up that preferential treatment. She wasn’t treated like just some other patient.

Even though my mom has played a large role in me going into foodservice, I’m not trying to follow her footsteps. I’m paving my own way, and Morrison has helped jump-start my career.”