2012 Silver Plate—Dan Henroid: Retail Renovator

Since joining UCSF Medical Center in 2006, Henroid has renovated every retail location, resulting in retail sales’ growth from $3 million to $6 million. He also implemented sustainability and wellness initiatives in his program.

At a Glance: Dan Henroid
•Director of Nutrition and Foodservices
•University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center
•Years in foodservice: 18
•Meals per day: 8,000
•Foodservice employees: 282

Dan Henroid’s operational achievements:

•When Henroid joined UCSF, he inherited a $450,000 project. Henroid took the plan and expanded it to nearly $8 million. One of the project’s biggest components was the Moffitt Café, which has better flow, an action station with swapable equipment and a wood stone pizza oven. The kitchen was also renovated, which enabled a room service component for some patients.

•Henroid turned a trash room into the Moffitt Café Express, which averages $1.7 million in sales per year. This took a coffee cart out of the main dining area and expanded it to serve not only coffee but also other grab-and-go and hot items.

•During renovations, Henroid created 920 Express, a mini convenience store on the ninth floor, to serve customers. 920 Express, built in 150 square feet, offers coffee, grab-and-go items and breakfast favorites such as burritos.

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•Henroid’s retail locations have lots of nearby competition, so Henroid uses his staff’s culinary talents to create new and ethnic items that keep the hospital’s employees from leaving campus for meals.

•Henroid simplified patient menus to concentrate on making the best items possible. Before Henroid, patient trays consisted of several prepackaged items, which Henroid said made the trays look institutional and added to the waste stream. Now most food on patient trays is plated.

•Sustainability is a major focus. The foodservice team sorts and composts all pre- and post-consumer waste for both retail and patients. Henroid estimates that 16% of all purchases made in 2011 were from local sources.

•The majority of café items have an SKU that is scanned so that the team has an accurate account of what items are being purchased. In addition, Henroid created new labels that include nutritional information.

•Smart Choice, a branded wellness program, was developed to help customers select better-for-you items in the cafés. Nutritional information is posted on digital signage and on cash register receipts. Henroid also created a dietitian-led position to help the procurement manager so that wellness would be evident in every aspect of an item’s life cycle from production to consumption.

Related:2012 Silver Plate—Frozen custard start of foodservice career for UCSF Medical Center’s Dan Henroid

•Workplace injuries were high in the department, so Henroid worked with the occupational health department to create a video to show foodservice employees how to properly lift, pull and push items they commonly find in their daily jobs. Since the video, injuries have declined.