5 things: Hospital opens all-hours kosher lounge

In this edition of 5 Things, Food Management highlights five things you may have missed recently about developments affecting onsite dining.

Here’s your list for today:

The new Healing Hearts Kosher Lounge at the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and features a food prep station, storage space and areas for families to relax and pray. The food is provided on a weekly basis by the Healing Hearts Bikur Cholim organization and includes kosher wraps, sandwiches and other lunch alternatives. During the weekend, or Shabbat, full meals are provided for families.

Read more: Children’s hospital opens new kosher food lounge

Microsoft's new One Esterra office building, which opened at the end of March adjacent to where the company is building its new East Campus in Redmond, Wash., is a LEED Platinum certified building that features a 100% electric food hall, a first for Microsoft and a proving ground for what’s to come across the company as the tech giant aims to be carbon negative by 2030. The chefs work across 13,200 square feet of all-electric cooking space at nine custom eateries equipped to prepare more than 1,000 meals a day without lighting a single flame.

Related:5 tech things: Robots and drones debut at sporting events

Read more: Recipe for sustainability: Inside Microsoft’s new electric food hall, where there’s no cooking with gas

Aramark has announced a plan to separate its Uniform Services unit into an independent, publicly traded company by the end of fiscal 2023. After the completion of the proposed spin-off, John Zillmer will continue to serve as CEO and Tom Ondrof as CFO of Aramark, which will consist of the company’s current U.S. and International Food & Support Services (FSS) divisions, which had constituted the bulk of the company’s operations, with the U.S. FSS division alone accounting for around 60% of company revenues in the most recent fiscal quarter and International FSS about 23%. Aramark’s listing in FM’s annual Top 50 has traditionally included only revenues from the U.S. FSS unit.

Read more: Aramark Announces Plan to Separate Uniform Services Business into Independent Publicly Traded Company

The new “Food As Medicine” facility at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut was created to look like a real grocery store, but with only healthy items on its shelves. In partnership with Foodshare, Hartford Hospital patients who qualify have access to specific healthy food items, free of charge, prescribed by their doctors while the Hartford Hospital nutrition team provides them with healthy eating education and advice as part of the program.

Related:NACUFS announces 2022 Loyal Horton, Nutrition and Sustainability Award winners

Read more: Hartford Hospital ‘Food As Medicine’ Program Opens for Business

GrubHub plans to offer a free lunch of up to $15 to all of New York City and the surrounding area on Tuesday May 17. Eligible users can use the promo code FREELUNCH on the GrubHub app or website between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. that day to earn $15 off a qualifying offer. The company says its rationale comes from a survey of 1,000 New Yorkers that indicated that while they think lunch is important, over half say they often skip it because they are too busy.

Read more: Grubhub Free Lunch Offer Hits NYC Area Next Week; Here's How to Get Yours

Bonus: Eight dishes that use items usually tossed in the trash

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]