Dinner on the house at Decatur hospital

DECATUR, Ill. — No one wants to spend Christmas in the hospital, but for those who must, the hospitals want it to feel a bit like home with the familiar taste of a holiday meal.

Supervisor Jeremy Dugan arrived at St. Mary's Hospital at 5 a.m. Christmas Day. That's when preparations for lunch and dinner, including the preparation of 72 pounds of ham, started for the hundreds of patients, employees and visitors at the hospital.

“We try to make them feel special,” Dugan said.

Kevin Houy, director of food and nutrition services for St. Mary's, said the Christmas Day menu is different because they have a smaller kitchen staff, are serving fewer people and they have a longstanding tradition of closing the cash registers.

“St. Mary's is generous enough to offer a free meal to employees for that day," Houy said.

In fact, anyone who came into the cafeteria Thursday, including volunteers, EMTs and visiting family members, received a free meal. Houy estimated up to 275 employees came through the buffet line for ham, candied sweet potato casserole, broccoli, salad and desserts.

“We try to keep to those traditional meals that people are familiar with,” Houy said.

Staff also hand-delivered nearly 100 patient meals. Most requested the holiday menu and a sweet treat if their dietary restrictions allowed for it.

“We give them a Christmas cookie,” Dugan said, “If they want more, we give them more.”

At Decatur Memorial Hospital, Matt Oberheim, the director of food and nutrition services, said the number of workers and Cafe DMH hours for breakfast, lunch and dinner are the same as any other day on Christmas, but extra thought goes into the food.

“It's nice to be able to have a special meal for them, we try to make that as nice as we can,” he said.