Lynn Bast: fresh, local foods supporting patient care at GRH

Patients may never meet most of these hard-working staff members, but they are busy behind the scenes working to ensure our patients receive nutritious meals with the best possible ingredients.

Lynn Bast, the production coordinator in GRH’s nutrition and food services department, is responsible for producing patient food with healthy ingredients, sourced locally whenever possible. We strive to provide the freshest foods to our patients delivered to the bedside by our friendly staff.

1. What is your position in our nutrition and food services department?

I have been the production coordinator at GRH for 15 years. As the production coordinator I hold a gold seal cook certificate and am a member of the Canadian Society of Nutrition Management. I have been in the food service field for many years working in catering, short order and institutional food service settings.

2. Can you tell me a little bit about the work you do?

I coordinate all activities associated with organizing the production of food for patients, including creating some recipes to meet our specific needs. In our production kitchen we continue to produce some in-house items such as hot cereals, salad style fillings, mashed potatoes, gravy, burritos and beef stew. By producing these items in-house we can control the ingredients used.

3. We do our best to serve local, high quality foods. Where do we source our local foods from for our patients?

We try to source local product when available. For example, our turkey is a Butterball brand turkey which comes from Arthur, Ontario. In the summer, our strawberries are picked first thing in the morning and delivered hours later from Hoffman Farms in Heidelberg, Ontario. How’s that for fresh!   

4. How many inpatient meals do we serve each day?

We serve approximately 1,300 patient meals per day between our two campuses. A refrigerated truck transports food to Freeport twice a day. A team of fifty staff work hard to deliver three square meals to our patients 365 days a year.      
    
The nutrition and food services department has very dedicated staff who strive to serve patients quality, nutritious meals. I am very proud to be a part of the team.