5 things: Universal use of medically tailored meals could avoid 1.6M hospitalizations, save $13.6B, study finds

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:

A new study out of the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy published by JAMA Network Open concludes that if all eligible patients received access to medically tailored meals (MTMs), in just the first year of service 1,594,000 hospitalizations could be avoided for a net cost savings of $13.6 billion. "Our new research, supported by the National Institutes of Health, provides compelling evidence that MTMs should be implemented and evaluated at scale by government healthcare programs including Medicare, Medicaid, the VA hospitals, and the Indian Health Service, and by private insurance programs across the country," commented Dariush Mozaffarian, MD DrPH, Jean Mayer Professor at the Friedman School.

Read more: New Study Published in JAMA Network Open Models The Significant National Healthcare Cost Savings of the Medically Tailored Meal Model

Striking truckers used tractor-trailers to block the exits at the Sysco foodservice distribution facility in Massachusetts, resulting in as many as 20 arrests, police said. The warehouse in Plympton, near Boston, is still operating with third-party drivers and stocks some 13,000 products, according to the company’s website. Sysco employees at a company facility near Syracuse, New York, had also been on strike, but the sides reached an agreement last week.

Related:5 things: Fire closes college’s dining center for the semester

Read more: Up to 20 arrested after striking truckers block Massachusetts food plant exits

The University of Wisconsin-Madison had a successful program to compost discarded food since 2009, initially by collecting food scraps at campus cafeterias and sending them to the West Madison Agricultural Research Station for composting. Difficulties with non-compostable scraps like paper, plastic and metals led to a change in 2018, when the university began bringing scraps to an anaerobic biodigester where the waste was converted into methane for fuel. However, Clean Fuel Partners LLC, the company that now owns the biodigester, changed its focus last year and stopped taking food, leading it to drop its partnership with UW-Madison. The university is now working on alternatives, beginning with a pilot program with the Agricultural Research Station limited to back of the house food scraps from its four largest food waste generators, which make up more than half of all food waste on campus.

Related:5 tech things: Grubhub/Starship robot delivery alliance to expand to more campuses

Read more: Large-scale food-scrap composting in Madison challenged by technology, logistics

Point Park University in Pittsburgh has a disappearing dishware problem after only about five weeks of school, according to an email sent to students by Kristy Weiss, general manager for campus dining services provider Culinart. According to Weiss' email, the program "started out this school year with over 1,000 plates and we have 47 left. We are not able to serve you properly if we do not have plates, utensils, cups available. Please bring these back ASAP. Please remember that the dining hall plates, silverware, cups, etc… are NOT permitted to leave the dining room.”

Read more: 953 plates missing from dining hall in only first five weeks of semester

Compass Group India, a wholly owned subsidiary of UK-based Compass Group, is close to finalizing the acquisition of Elior India’s catering business, reportedly making Compass India's largest corporate catering player. Compass has been operating in India since 2008 and is actively expanding its business in the country into new verticals and new territories, partly through acquisitions. Meanwhile, Elior entered the India market in late 2016 through the acquisition of a majority stake in CRCL and a 100% stake in Megabite Food Services, but the company exited the joint venture with CRCL last year and has since been looking to exit its Megabite business as well..

Read more: Compass Group to acquire Elior India Catering Business

Bonus: Chartwells Joy-Ful program is back on campuses

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]