5 things: Why Medicare should try medically tailored meals

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:

 1.    Why Medicare should try medically tailored meals

A groundbreaking cost-modeling 2022 study found that a national implementation of medically tailored meals for patients with diet-sensitive conditions and other factors—patients accounting for the highest costs in our health care system—could help avoid trips to the hospital and save $13.6 billion annually. This study was primarily based on two rigorous, peer-reviewed studies—one published in Health Affairs in 2018, the other in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2019, in which Community Servings, a Boston-based nonprofit organization that provides medically tailored meals to people with chronic or critical illnesses, participated.

Read more: Why Medicare should try medically tailored meals

 2.    Illinois to require halal and kosher meals from state-funded institutions

A bill recently passed by the Illinois legislature will require state-funded institutions to provide halal and kosher meals if they are requested. This includes schools as well as prisons and hospitals.

Read more: Illinois schools to provide halal and kosher meals to kids

Related:5 things: Study finds COVID policies almost doubled summer meal participation

 3.    Cal State student workers looking to unionize

More than 4,000 student assistants across 23 California State University (CSU) campuses submitted paperwork in April seeking to hold a vote on whether to unionize. If the campaign is successful, the union would be the largest representing nonacademic undergraduate student employees in the country, according to the Cal State University Employees Union, which hopes to add the students to the more than 15,000 support staff already on its membership rolls. Student workers in nonacademic positions have increasingly sought to unionize at campuses across the country—students who work in campus dining halls led a successful union campaign last year at Dartmouth, followed shortly afterwards by Grinnell College in Iowa expanding a union for dining workers to all hourly student workers. However, as most CSU dining halls contract their jobs to outside agencies, those workers would not be eligible to join the new union, according to the California State University Employees Union.

Read more: Campus jobs are a lifeline for these CSU students. Some are looking to form a union

 4.    NYC schools to use state funds to buy more local foods

New York City will use state funds to purchase school food from local farmers, Mayor Eric Adams and Department of Education (DOE) Chancellor David C. Banks have announced. The DOE Office of Food and Nutrition Services has been awarded $8.4 million through the Local Food for Schools grant, allocated by the New York State Education Department  that will be used to buy locally grown foods from local producers, small businesses, and historically disadvantaged farmers and producers.

Related:5 tech things: Uber Eats partners with tech firm to expand robotic delivery

Read more: NYC to use state funds to buy school food from local farmers

 5.    Oak View Group acquires global hospitality firm Rhubarb

Global sports and live entertainment firm Oak View Group has announced the acquisition of premier high-end hospitality provider Rhubarb Hospitality Collection (RHC), which operates in iconic venues like Peak, a 10,000 sq.ft. restaurant, bar and event space on the 101st floor of 30 Hudson Yards in New York. RHC is forecasted to deliver nine-figure revenues in 2023 and its team of 2,000 caters for well over 5 million people every year at venues in New York, London and Berlin.

Read more: Oak View Group Completes Purchase of UK-based Rhubarb Hospitality Collection

Bonus: 14 College & University managers who made a difference over the past year

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]