Hospital grapples with feeding community favorites vs. healthy choices

FAIRFAX, S.C. — If you have the bad luck to find yourself hungry and without access to a home kitchen in Fairfax, S.C., your eating options are few.

“There’s Subway, there’s Hardee’s, and that’s pretty much it,” says Lari Gooding, an administrator at Allendale County Hospital.

The third choice is the hospital cafeteria, which serves the best-attended Sunday dinner in Allendale County. But the after-church herd is outnumbered by the crowd that shows up on Thursdays, when fried chicken is on the menu. The chicken is so popular that the hospital unlocks a conference room to accommodate diners who can’t find a seat, even though many customers take their meals to go.

“One person comes in and leaves with 10 boxes for his co-workers,” says Gooding, who professes to prefer the cafeteria’s baked chicken.

“Oh, I think the fried chicken is probably as good as any,” he allows. “Everyone in the South likes fried chicken.”

And in many small towns across South Carolina, they like to eat it in hospital cafeterias, a preference that’s the result of scarcity, tradition and an entrenched appreciation of adept frying. “It’s a gathering place for the community,” says Graham Adams, chief executive officer of the South Carolina Office of Rural Health. “In some communities, it’s one of the few restaurants open Sunday for lunch. And some of them have pretty good food.”

In addition to immediate comfort, the meals served in hospital cafeterias, usually priced at $5-$6, including a drink, provide lasting reassurance that the host institution is trustworthy. That’s critical information in areas around the 19 S.C. hospitals classified as “small and rural,” since residents are likely to one day rely on them for care.

“A patient can’t judge clinical outcomes,” Adams says. “But they can judge how clean the hospital is, how nicely they’re treated and how good the food tastes.”