UCSF Medical Center Named NRA's Innovator of the Year

The National Restaurant Association named the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center the Innovator of the Year for its Smart Choice Smart U initiative in the third annual Operator Innovation Awards program. UCSF, which also won the Health & Nutrition category, was one of four onsite foodservice operators winning Innovation Awards, completing a near sweep of the program's five award categories.

The winners were chosen by an independent panel of expert judges who recognized operators for their achievements in driving advancement in the foodservice industry in the categories of Health & Nutrition, Marketing, Menu Development, Sustainability and Technology. They were revealed live at the gala Destination: Celebration event May 17th in Chicago before the 2014 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show.

The 2014 Operator Innovations Awards winners by category are:

Health and Nutrition
UCSF Medical Center for its Smart Choice Smart U
A comprehensive, technology driven wellness program that uses online platforms, mobile applications, and digital signage to provide real-time nutritional information on the center’s food outlets—balanced with a personal activity component driven by partnerships with MyFitnessPal and Fitbit. See video of more information here.

Menu Development
UNC Healthcare for its Restaurant Delivery Program
A new paradigm in Healthcare food service that provides patients at UNC’s hospital with nearly 100 entrées using 20-page menu categorized into distinct restaurant brands—resulting in a significant rise in patient satisfaction scores and over $1.3 million in savings since its inception two years ago. The Restaurant Delivery Program is the first hospital to use sous vide techniques including sous vide chicken, hamburgers and salmon. In their first year, the program saved UNC more than $500,000 in labor and $400,000 in costs, employee morale was up, patient’s attitudes were upbeat and costs were down. See video of more information here.

Marketing
Orange County Public Schools for its OCPS Truck of the Month (T.O.M.)
The Orange County Public School Truck of the Month (T.O.M) Program reflects their effort to implement current trends in the restaurant and foodservice industry into an educational setting that kids can relate to and understand. This program capitalizes on the food truck craze to increase students’ daily participation in their school lunch program—partnering with a new vendor each month to develop items that are food truck inspired, nutritionally compliant and served off Orange County Public School’s very own food truck. See video of more information here.

Sustainability
Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts for its GreenPath program
This stewardship with five indicators – environmental management, asset protection, interpretation and education, community outreach, healthy food and healthy living platform, assigns roles, responsibilities and best practices reaching from dedicated leadership to individual associates to meet stringent standards in waste disposal, conservation, supply chain and is verified by receiving third party audits—promoting sustainability and healthy communities/people across many diverse and seasonal properties. See video of more information here.

Technology
Dickie Brennan’s Restaurants for its RAIL Payment Platform
The multi-concept restaurant group joined forces with application technology group RAIL to create a pay-at-the-table program for all their concepts. I.T. Director Derek Nettles worked with the RAIL team to create the exclusive system, which integrates the restaurants’ point-of-sale and reservation systems to track dining and service preferences for guests. Diners are able to pay their bill right at the table, without which yields data that is sharable between locations for more personalized service and better-targeted marketing messages. See video of more information here.

In addition to winning the Health & Nutrition category, UCSF Medical Center was named Innovator of the Year for the Smart Choice Smart U program. The digital-based wellness plan utilizes online platforms, mobile applications, and digital signage to provide real-time nutritional information on the center’s food outlets, which can be balanced with a personal activity component driven by partnerships with MyFitnessPal and Fitbit. Dan Henroid, the director of nutrition and foodservice for UCSF Medical Center, accepted the award on his team’s behalf.

“Winning our category was, in itself very significant for our team,” Henroid said. “The talent in this year’s awards top-notch, and we are honored to be recognized among all these great innovations. I have to give a big thanks to my team, USCF, and the entire food and nutrition services team—they make our work possible every single day.”

“The winners of these initiatives are at the forefront of innovation and ingenuity in the foodservice industry," notes Sam Facchini, Convention Chair for NRA Show 2014 and co-founder and co-owner of Metro Pizza. "These programs succeed in pushing boundaries and exploring alternative ways of operating while creating a synergy between business and creativity."