Hospital chef changing views on healthy living

Since taking the reigns as Major Hospital’s chef, Mark Weil has been focused on and committed to providing healthy options and discourse to Shelby County’s residents.

Looking for the way to implement the best practices of healthy eating and living, Weil has made changes and has helped grow programs in Shelby County. One of the things the hospital’s café did involved moving the sodas and the other drinks in the cooler around, so that more healthy options were at eye level.

“As a coalition, we’ve talked about the many places that impact people’s choices when it comes to what they’re going to eat...and the hospital cafeteria has also been concerned and invested in creating more healthy options, and some of those options really are just a matter of placement,” said Denise Holland, the coordinator of Healthy Shelby County and community liaison for Major Health Partners.

“For example, one of the top-selling bottled sodas in the hospital was the Real Thing Coke; lots of sugar. So by simply rearranging the bottled beverages, and putting at eye level water and Coke Zero and some other beverages like that, the number one-selling beverage in the hospital now is Coke Zero. So there are some strategies that work in terms of helping people make healthier choices.”

Weil is employed through ABM Corporation, which, along with MHP, has placed a heavy emphasis on the healthy initiative in the over 300 facilities they operate in.

“That’s being driven from the top down. Our President of Healthcare Services Dan Bowen is really kind of pushing that out, that we need to be there for guest services and guest relations and community involvement,” Weil said.

Part of that emphasis and focus involved educating people on healthy living and eating, which is why Weil partnered with Southwestern Consolidated Schools for the Let’s Go program, which was started by first lady Michelle Obama, and the Veggie U program, which is for fourth-grade students and is sponsored by ABM. According to Weil, they would like to get other sponsors for the other schools in the county, to further educate the students.

“I think, from my standpoint because I have young children, it’s started there because that’s going to be the next generation…They’ll even notice when there aren’t healthy options at the school. That’s a good sign. That means in 10 to 15 years from now, they’re going to expect that. When they go to the hospital, when they go out to eat and when they go to their children’s school, that’s what they’re going to expect and that’s where we’re starting and need to keep driving them toward,” Weil said.

He also said that Lisa Schnepp, the lead dietician at MHP, sends out information to the schools to help “educate on healthy eating and diabetes education.”

Other things MHP and Weil have been involved with, in regards to health and wellness in the county, include diabetes education, cooking demonstrations, Diabetes Health Fair, Employee Health Fair, grilling at the downtown Shelbyville Farmers Market and education outreach to corporations with MHP clinics, including Ryobi and Knauf Insulation.

“Our operation, as small as it is, I think we have great resource of dieticians available to us. We have five, I think, and that is huge for a chef to have that resource, when I can just go, ‘Can I have this analyzed?’ And boom, it’s back to you in 30 seconds.