Power Players 2017: Stretching the harvest bounty

It was a decade ago that a local farmer was a patient at Union Hospital and “embarrassed” Dining Services Director Holly Emmons with the quality of the fruit he was served. She was determined to do something about it and now, 10 years later, 122-bed Union is one of the most progressive healthcare institutions in the country in leveraging the bounty of locally grown and produced ingredients.

Emmons has made a science of purchasing at the height of the harvest to get advantageous pricing, something made possible by the use of vacuum-seal technology and plenty of temp-controlled storage space that allows summer’s plenty to supplement winter’s scarcity.

“We constantly increase the volume of local [product we purchase] by adding more farmers and [we process] fruits and vegetables so that we have the fresh product available year-round,” Emmons says. “We vacuum seal and freeze items. I take as much as I can accommodate to preserve through the winter months, and base my menus on the items available to me.”

So, for example, when tomatoes are ripe, “we make tons of marinara sauce because that’s a staple in any menu,” Emmons says. Similarly, corn is taken off the cob and frozen when that crop is in season.

Other crops that can be stored and frozen in either raw or processed form include strawberries, zucchini and various squashes.

But it’s not just fruits and vegetables that get the prepare-and-store treatment. Emmons also makes her own bone broth using bones procured from the chicken and beef vendors, which is then vacuum sealed and frozen for future use as well.

The current local vendor roster includes a beef/pork raiser, a chicken farmer, a grower of organic produce and two other vegetable and fruit growers.

Local purchasing at Union Hospital is aided by Maryland’s buy local initiative, which holds an annual program at the nearby Naval Academy at Annapolis and the state also publishes a buyer/grower directory that connects buyers and growers across Maryland.

“We picked up a couple vendors through that program,” Emmons says, noting that Union Hospital’s participation in the program is beneficial to farmers and growers beyond just its participation as a buyer. “The advantage for all of the farmers I’ve worked with is that because of our size as an institution, they’ve been able to expand the acreage they’re growing.”

For example, her current beef supplier was able to expand his herd after contracting with Union Hospital, and it also allowed him to start raising hogs, “so I now had a source of pork as well,” Emmons notes.

“I’d actually taken pork off my menu because I couldn’t find a sustainable source,” she adds.

Other sustainable products Union purchases include cage-free eggs and free-range chickens.

It sounds expensive but “all of the changes we’ve done here at the hospital have been budget neutral,” Emmons claims, “because we are buying at the height of the harvest when prices are the lowest. We make adjustments in other areas to be able to afford the quality that we want in the products.”

Among those strategies are maximizing contracts with prime vendors for groceries. “I utilize non-name- brand cereals,” for example, she offers.

Emmons also suggests that buying whole fruits and vegetables avoids the price premium that comes with purchasing value-added processed products. She grants that that approach does mean more labor costs but suggests that the benefits of processing the same-day harvests as they come in more than outweigh the added labor requirements because they become team-building activities.

“Everybody kind of pulls together in the kitchen to get all the corn husked and processed,” she says. “I’m even out there [as are] the dietitians. We’ve even had the security guards doing it. As a group, our department buys into this philosophy, so we don’t consider it extra labor. We do work harder in the summer,” she admits, “because of all the extra processing.”

Menus are planned a year in advance utilizing the knowledge of the kinds of crops expected to ripen at different times of the year in the area.

“We already know what we will be dealing with” in terms of seasonal produce, Emmons offers. “We also work with the farmers because they want to plant what we want to buy, so they actually change their crop rotation in accordance with what we can use.”

She notes that she will also purchase farmers’ overstocks and their distressed produce—so-called “ugly” fruits and vegetables that are unsalable at retail because of their appearance but are perfectly edible—for use in soups and stews, providing yet another area of cost savings.

The hospital itself uses a spoken menu system for patient meals. The menu is restaurant style with chef specials.

There are two retail dining outlets. The cafeteria includes a large steam table, salad bar and grill while the smaller coffee shop—actually the busier location because of its location—menus soups and sandwiches and is a popular spot for locals. The cafeteria is open for breakfast and lunch during the week while the coffee shop stays open seven days from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Emmons is working on introducing a delivery system. “We’ll start with just cold items and see how it goes,” she says.