Charlotte Pilat Burns is a Registered Dietitian and Regional Manager in Food & Nutrition Services in the Saskatoon Health Region. She works in many areas of the region, including acute care and long term care, promoting the importance of food in healing with multiple health care provider teams. Charlotte chairs the regional menu advisory committee and is a member of the regional malnutrition task force. These groups are dedicated to increasing client satisfaction and outcomes. She advocates for improved food & nutrition services in health care and believes that food is essential for nourishing the body, mind and soul.
The Saskatoon Health Region has the mission to "improve health through excellence and innovation in service, education and research, building on the strengths of our people and partnerships." The focus for the Nourish project is at the three tertiary acute care sites in Saskatoon: Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon City Hospital and St. Paul's Hospital. We provide meals to 800 patients at these sites daily. Most of the food items served to patients in Saskatoon are produced in-house at the centralized Food Production Center (FPC). The FPC uses a cook-freeze, cook-chill production system and produces 5000 meals per day.
To meet the ever changing needs in the population that we serve, our vision for this project is to integrate more culturally appropriate and diverse foods into the patient menus at the three tertiary acute care sites in Saskatoon. We will engage our community partners, patients and families to identify culturally appropriate menu items reflective of the needs and preferences of the different ethnic groups that are represented in our local population. By improving access to culturally appropriate foods we will improve the meal experience and food culture for our patients and community. In the future, we plan to extend our learnings to other populations we serve in the healthcare setting.