Ask most people about the food they’ve eaten in the hospital and they’ll tell you how they’d rather forget about the lukewarm soup and cardboard toast that fed them during an awkward time in their lives.
No Elaine Chu, regional manager of food operations at Royal Columbian and Eagle Ridge hospitals in BC. A quick question about the food served at Royal Columbian leads to passionate descriptions of how tasty the falafels are, the plant-based cucumber, tomato and chicken salad the institution recently put on its menu.
The new dishes are part of an effort spearheaded by Chu to reduce the environmental impacts of food eaten at the 490-bed hospital, one of the busiest in BC.
Health care is responsible for about 4.6 percent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, and many of these emissions can be traced to food waste and a reliance on single-use plastic items. according to the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Canadian hospitals have traditionally put meat, the largest source of food emissions, at the center of their menus. Single-use plastics have also become increasingly common in hospital food service since the 1950s, with plastic plates and cutlery dominating patient meal trays. As well as being a major source of pollution, single-use plastics are a key growth area for the fossil fuel industry, making them a significant contributor to climate change.
The problem became clear to Chu during the unprecedented heat wave and flooding that hit BC in 2021, events exacerbated by climate change. The twin crises were “an awakening,” pushing her to find ways to make the food cooked and served in the hospital more sustainable.
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She set her sights on reducing plastic and using more plants. Working alongside hospital units that were also looking to reduce her environmental footprint, she began replacing single-use plastic spoons with reusable metal spoons. She estimates that the initiative alone will likely have saved at least 30,000 spoons a year and showed how much plastic waste could be eliminated by a full transition to reusable cutlery.
The initiative is almost a reversal of older hospital practices: Until the 1950s, hospitals relied heavily on reusable items, from cutlery to surgical instruments to masks. Single-use plastic replacements only became common in the 1960s after American plastic makers convinced some hospital administrators to build hospitals that relied heavily on disposable plastic.
Chu also tried to reduce the impact of the hospital kitchen by encouraging his team to develop plant-based recipes that were tasty and nutritious enough to be included in the hospital’s default menu. Vegetarian and vegan options have always been available, she said, but patients who wanted them had to make special requests. With the new menu, all patients will be able to choose a meal without meat.
Health care is responsible for about 4.6 percent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, and many of these emissions can be traced to food waste and reliance on single-use plastic items, according to the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
The team developed several possible meals, then had about 750 hospital staff try them out to find out which ones were the most popular. Two meals — falafels with hummus and cucumber salad, and plant-based chicken tenders — made the cut. They have since been included in a new menu that is being tested in three of the hospital’s units.
Chu said patients have greatly appreciated the new meatless options. He also received positive feedback from his hospital staff and others in the region. And the key to success?
“It has to taste good, plant-based or not.”