Dear Colleagues,
Our mission at MU Health Care and the MU School of Medicine is to save and improve lives. We each play a part in achieving this mission, and that is no different for the extraordinary folks at Dining & Nutrition Services, led by Director Curtis Lilly.
Chief Nursing Officer Shanon Fucik and I had the privilege of recently attending the Tier 1 Huddle for Food Services in the Grill, which is on the bottom floor of University Hospital.
The huddle was led by Araceli Mota, Supervisor of Hospital Nutrition & Food Services. She began by asking about what celebrations and anniversaries people wanted to recognize. The group then got down to business, discussing any throughput or logistical issues.
Araceli asked the team for feedback about a previous week when they were down a supervisor. It was challenging, but one of the cooks, Lucia Valdes Carrasco stepped up and “ran the show,” ensuring everything still ran smoothly. She received a well-earned round of applause from her peers.
After, the huddle presented an opportunity for several reminders. Myah Greene, executive chef, talked about a vendor that was bringing in new knives for a testing session.It struck me how similar this was to clinician teams discussing a vendor bringing in a new piece of equipment to check out.
Finishing with good news, Lilly told the team that they were approved for a new dishwashing machine. I asked how the new machine would help their operations and he and the others were quick with answers: it’s faster, more efficient, easier to use and has a higher dish capacity.
It once again struck me that this was all in line with our mission to save and improve lives. Nutrition is such an important step in prevention and in recovery from a variety of conditions, and it can also be a source of great joy. I know several employees look forward to their afternoon coffee from Lakota.
To achieve our mission, we need to take care of our staff, faculty and visitors, who all need good food and beverages while they are in our buildings. I would like to thank all the members of our Dining & Nutrition Services team who work tirelessly, every day, to provide for us.
Sincerely,
Rick Barohn, MD
Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and Hugh E. and Sarah D. Stephenson Dean, School of Medicine
rbarohn@health.missouri.edu
