huntington hospital
thank you frontline workers
We say thank-you to the nurses and doctors, but what about the frontline teams that go unnoticed? This article was written for The Pulse newsletter at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, CA to recognize the FNS team and their extraordinary efforts during COVID.
Written by: Laura Kissinger
Resilient. There is no better word to describe our Food and Nutrition Services team at Huntington Hospital. Being resilient and having the ability to adapt, allowed the Food and Nutrition Services team to positively face the COVID19 pandemic and come out stronger.
“Teamwork and empathy deepened our comradery. During COVID we could no longer work in silos and learned to lean on each other for cross-department support.”, said Dennis, Catering Manager. “When all our catering events were abruptly cancelled, our team was responsible for serving and pre-packaging over 1,000 meals per day, 7 days a week, to the nurses and doctors. Our amazing cooks and retail staff would jump in immediately to help, as they knew this was a top priority. We couldn’t have done it alone.”
Geraldine expressed that her and the Patient Services team quickly opened themselves up to a new level of vulnerability and developed a mantra during the pandemic – We are going to be okay. Hannah, Catering Coordinator, expressed similar sentiments, “Somedays were very hard, but I am so thankful that teammates and leaders stepped in when myself or others needed to take a breather to regroup. We really helped each other maintain positivity.” That positivity spread through every department.
Through all the changes and uncertainty, the FNS team still inspired. Martin and the Sanitation team worked tirelessly to bring everyone a sense of ease through their enhanced safety and cleaning procedures. Tricia, barista at Starbucks used positivity to comfort her customers. “Even when we were scared ourselves, we were extra cheerful and made all our orders with extra love and positivity. Our team was so thankful to be able to come to work every day and we really grew stronger together.”
From launching a Farmer’s Market and Meals-to-Go program to delivering thousands of meals to our Huntington COVID staff units, and launching Bite +, a new mobile ordering app for Starbucks, our team not only conquered new challenges and uncertainty with positivity and grace, but maintained innovation in our café. Executive Chef Ben said it best, “Our goal is always to provide a nutritious meal to our guests, but during COVID we strived to provide comfort, ease, and a sense of familiarity. We wanted to give the nurses, doctors and all frontline workers a place to rest and make them feel like they were part of our family.”