5 things: Florida hospital offering vegan meals for patients

Each Friday I compile a list that highlights five things you probably missed in the news that week and why you should care about them.

Here’s your list for the week of March 19:

1. Florida hospital offering vegan meals for patients

Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach is the first hospital in the state to offer a 100 percent vegan option for patients. The move came about after a cardiologist making rounds noticed that a patient who had been admitted with a heart attack was being served a cheeseburger. The article, while biased, said the hospital is only one of a handful in the country that offers the 100 percent vegan option to patients.

Read more: Florida Hospital Becomes First in State to Offer Vegan Menu to Patients

2. Dining director under fire for mandatory meal plan

The dining program has been under fire at the University of Wisconsin ever since it announced that students who live on campus would be required to purchase a meal plan. That led to several student protests. This past week, dining director Jeff Novak addressed the student council, saying they “don’t want this to be difficult” for students but also noted that the meal plan would help the department run more efficiently. “We must have a customer base to start out with, so that we can operate all of our facilities,” Novak said. “Without a revenue or a financial base to start off with, we would not be able to employ our staff and keep prices down to levels that they currently are at.”

Read more: Dining director takes heat from Student Council on controversial meal plan

3. College saves $300K with meal swipe program

The implementation of a swipes program has saved Middlebury College in Vermont big bucks. Nearly $100,000 was made by selling single meal swipes to students living off campus and not on a meal plan. Another big savings came from the new swipes program preventing those who shouldn’t be eating in the dining halls for free, such as visiting sports teams and off-campus students, who the article said had been able to exploit the previous system. The college also says it has been able to save costs by being able to better determine how many people are eating in the dining halls each day.

Read more: Swipe System Saves College Dining More than $300K

4. District adds mentoring lunch program

At Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School in Maine’s Brunswick School District, there’s more on the menu than food as many second-grade students are paired with a community mentor who dines with them once a week. The program provides a great way for students to learn and interact with the community, including the fire chief. It also provides a great opportunity for adults to see what the school lunch program is all about.

Read more: Brunswick school program adds mentoring to lunch menu

5.  Hospital employee accused of stealing foods
An employee at Geisinger Holy Spirit Hospital has been caught stealing food from the hospital’s cafeteria. On three separate occasions security cameras caught the employee taking food such as cans of crab meat and a 5-pound bag of diced chicken from the cafeteria. The thefts occurred over a month span.

Read more: Employee accused of stealing food from hospital kitchen

Bonus: Vote for 2018 Menu Madness

Contact Becky Schilling at [email protected].
Follow her on Twitter: @bschilling_FM