Ep. 38 | Chef Mike Galadza and Jason Childress, Director of Food Services

Transcript

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- Welcome to another episode of What Brings You in Today? I'm Taylor Fisher. And I'm Kara Hope Hanson. And we just wanna thank everyone who has listened and subscribed to the podcast. Please continue to do so and rate and review us. Leave us five stars. We love to hear everything that you like about the podcast.

- And if there are any topics that you might be interested in or specific guests you'd like us to have on, you can fill out the form at sgmc.org/podcast.

- Today we're joined by Chef Michael Galadza and Jason Childress, director of Food Services. So what brings you in today?

- Well, we're here to talk all things food at SGMC.

- We love that. Okay. We love talking about food, so we're really excited to have you guys on.

- Thank you for having us.

- Definitely. So can you tell us both, whoever wants to go first about your roles here at SGMC Health and kind of what brought you here

- As Executive Chef, we handle all of the patient food. We handle food for allspice for the main cafeteria, caterings, doctor's lounge, basically all things food. And we have a lot of fun doing it.

- How did you get here at SGMC Health?

- I fell in love with South Georgia, the cuisine, the people, the kindness and the hospital. Yeah. And it was a, it was a real simple transition. Being from Miami, coming up here is just a breath of fresh air and I really enjoy it.

- Okay. What about you Jason?

- So, I've been here for about four years. I moved from South Florida as well. I think what kind of brought me here is when I came up, the kindness of everybody, the facility, the environment that we have here. So I kind of handle all facilities throughout SGMC. I'm based here at the main campus and oversee all the different campuses for, from a food service standpoint. But I enjoy everything that I do and love the people that I work with and look forward to bringing a lot of innovation to the table.

- Yeah. It seems like you guys are always having fun Every time we go to the cafeteria or the spice. Seems like there's always a lot of action and fun going on. I know you guys have a really great team. We also, we do that works with you

- Chef. What inspired you to become a chef?

- I was a husky kid growing up. Okay. I put it out there. I love food. Food is constantly changing. Ingredients, recipes, I mean, what your grandma was cooking can now be innovated and kind of translated into a new form of cuisine and, and fusion. Bringing cultures together and and marrying those together is, has always been a passion.

- I love that. Well I know I've had, you know, obviously we eat the food all the time here at the, at the hospital, but I've had, when you've gotten to be a little more artistic, like when we did our business after hours and you made all those amazing appetizers and I was like, okay, this is definitely not hospital food. So just so you guys know, we have an amazing chef, not just a hospital food chef. Our food is made with love and a lot of care. So we thank you.

- And when we did that event, I mean everyone, all the attendees were like, how can they cater my event? Exactly. We were getting catering

- Requests for you guys. Yeah.

- Yeah. We've had several.

- So can we talk about the impact that food has on a patient's healing? 'cause we do all the inpatient food services, so you wouldn't necessarily think that the food has anything to do with them healing, but it really does.

- I, I think it starts at the level of our dieticians. They really dial into what is needed from a caloric intake to everything involved in that and dialing into the patient's needs really helps 'em heal faster using fresh quality ingredients that, that food heals. Okay. And you don't look forward to a lot of things in a hospital. Okay.

- Yeah.

- You look forward to a shower and you look forward to food. Okay. So if we can give part of that to them and bring that smile to their face, it really just, it, it makes us happy when we go home.

- Yeah, absolutely. How would you say you balance creating meals that are like nutritious, healthy, but also visually appealing? We recently did a new patient menu and there was a tasting and like all of the dishes were, you know, plated and looked so delicious.

- If you think about when you go to a restaurant And that dish is put down in front of you, you have already judged how that dish is gonna taste before you even put your fork and knife in it. Okay. So if you can make something visually appealing already you've taken one of those senses and worked with it. Okay. Then the smell hits you and then the taste. So really if you look at it, it's a visual approach that if you can nail that you've already started to work, you know, through that dish, colors, height, all those things are very important when you're, when you're actually looking at a dish garnish. If you look at the new patient menu, every single dish that goes out has a garnish on it. Okay. It's that little bit of extra love and hospital food, doesn't it? It's always gotten such a bad wrap. Okay. But it doesn't anymore. Especially at SGMC. I think we've really nailed this new menu and like I said, it started a dietician level, then we kind of worked through it as a team and Jason put together a beautiful menu that now has a QR code in it. So we're, you know, using that whole technology aspect to it and I'm really proud of it.

- Yeah. I got to try the french toast that was on the breakfast part of the menu. 'cause you guys brought it I think when we did radio and it was delicious. I think I ate about half of it, but I really wanted to eat all of it.

- Yeah, the french toast Red puddings actually on the, the patient menu this morning.

- Yeah.

- So the kitchen smells amazing right now.

- And personally we love the cinnamon rolls in the allspice. That's our personal favorite.

- We descended upon the All Spice yesterday to get cinnamon rolls. Like all of us went down there. I took one home from my husband

- That smell when it feels, I mean you're, you're gonna

- Get a, whether you like it or not. Exactly. So, and I'll ask you Jason, what are some of the innovations that y'all have brought to SGMC Health since you started here?

- Well, so just recently we've really focused on the patient menu that we were just talking about, which we've gotten a lot of great feedback and you know, from a hospital food standpoint, of course we always gotta take into consideration, you know, diet orders and things of that nature. Things that people cannot have, allergens, things of that nature. So that was the first piece of what we've been working on. Now that that's rolled out, we have now rolled out QR codes in all the patient rooms to where they can see the menu as well from the room. So if they've lost their menu or just want to take a look and see what's coming up, they can do so from their bedside. We are actually implementing a new system called Relay, which is a great communication tool that allows our associates to reach each other within the facility as well as nursing will be able to see where exactly the meals are as far as if they're on their way, if they're just arriving up to the unit. That way they can do what they need to do from their standpoint to make sure that, you know, the patients are up in the bed ready, that they're ready to eat, so that they're getting their meal hot and fresh at that point of service time. Then once we get that implemented, probably in about three to four weeks tops, we'll have that implemented and we are implementing that through patient transport and EVS as well. So, and then nursing units will have a relayed device as well that they can reach out to us. So it's a great communication tool from that point. We are in the process of working on a program called My Dine-in which is a technology piece to where the patients will actually be able to order bedside if they would like. Or we still give the personalized service and go room to room with iPads. Once the associate goes in and speaks to the patient, gets their diet order, that will actually translate into the My Dining program and then give us real time orders down in the kitchen. So from an efficiency standpoint and a food waste standpoint, it's really gonna tighten that piece up From there. We also will have what's called my delivery, which is about 90 days roughly after the implementation of my dine-in. So my delivery will actually allow nursing to see when that last trays built, what trays were delivered to what rooms. Because it's all IT tech, the technology actually will track, you know, what patients got, what trays we're actually working on, enhancing that program to where we can actually scan that tray as well and at the end where it will put their intake into the system as well. Now that's probably a little bit further out, but a lot of great technology pieces coming to the table and really look forward to it. 'cause it's really gonna streamline the process not only for the patient but from a production standpoint.

- Yeah. Making sure all the patients get their food hot and you know, in a timely manner and you know, no one gets, you know, overlooked by accident. Absolutely. All that. I think that's great

- Safety first.

- Yeah. - And I'm sure the nurses will very much appreciate it because I have to assume that they get the question a lot. When's my food coming? Exactly. When's my breakfast? When's my worst? That's my food.

- It's - One of the few things to look forward to. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. And the good thing about that this technology is, so for an example it's real time. So our EMR will talk to the My Dining program and the My Dining Program actually talks to our system that houses all of our diet orders and all of our menus. So if a patient say for example, has a allergen that is, and that food has that allergen, it will not allow the associate to place an order for that item because it'll automatically gray that out. So from a patient safety standpoint, it's really great because again, we've never had any issues, knock on wood. But you know, it enhances that patient safety aspect. Also with that it will, you know, kind of drill down. So if a patient is not allowed, say they're on a cardiac diet, you know, we'll not allow them to get anything with a higher sodium intake than they're allowed. A lot of people don't realize now with, you know, diabetics is that you can have some things that, you know, the, what the old school dieticians and physicians would say stay away from now within moderation you can have that. And so it's the education piece that goes into it as well that a lot of people that have been say a diabetic for 40, 50 years don't realize that hey, I can actually have this in moderation. So, and it's that teaching them, hey, this is good for you and it will help balance that out. So, so a lot of education goes into it and our dieticians do a great job with that.

- Yeah, we had Anna Scott on the podcast, one of our dieticians and she did an excellent job kind of explaining to us all that goes into the meal planning and the preparation, everything to keep the patients fed and healthy and satisfied while they're here.

- Yep.

- So how big is the food services team? I mean we've talked about dieticians, associates, cooks, and we are in several different locations. I mean it's a pretty big operation.

- So system wide we have about 107 employees. Yeah. So ranging from chefs, dieticians, patient service manager, retail managers, patient dining associates, cooks, support staff as far as like dish room and CL sanitation, things of that nature.

- The coffee shop,

- Real cooks, coffee shop, baristas. So it's a very big operation and we put out a lot of meals. A lot of people don't realize how much, how many meals do you really want to know? Yeah. So on a daily basis, I mean on average between retail, physician, lounge, caterings and patient meals, we probably put out about 6,000 to 7,000 meals per day at minimum.

- Is that across the system?

- That's mainly at main campus.

- Just at main campus.

- Yeah.

- Because we do have, you know, food services at our Lanier campus and our Smith Northview campus as well. So

- Absolutely.

- That's impressive meals.

- Yeah. And we have to manage that. So, you know, we're in constant communication. All the management team are in constant communication with each other so that we can see how we can enhance and how we can support each other. We're actually gonna be rolling out the new patient menu over at the linear campus probably in September as well as Smith Northview soon thereafter. So, you know, it's a lot of moving parts and you know, but we have a great team. So I have to say, all in all, it makes our job in life a lot easier. Absolutely. Just for the simple fact that we have a lot of passionate people and a lot of people don't realize all the behind the scenes things that go on, but it's couldn't be done without the team that we have. And I say that sincerely because I mean they are our rock and you know, they keep an open mind and you know, look at ways and we have communication with each other's on how we can streamline processes and still meet those regulatory compliance standards that, you know, we need to meet on a day-to-day basis.

- And that's why we kind of wanted to have you guys on to talk about that behind the scenes that you don't really see, I mean, staff and patients go in the cafeteria or they get the food in their room and they just see a plate of food. But I wanted people to know all the work that went into it and all the people that are behind it and they're, you know, over a hundred people working every day to get this food to you. And I know I grew up in Lakeland, so we frequented the Magnolia Cafe after church on Sundays, which was probably before y'all were here. But I mean, the public loves to go to the Magnolia Cafe and get lunch.

- Yeah. So we actually due to speaking to a lot of the community over there, 'cause after COVID that kind of went away, but now COVID is gone, you know, everything's getting back to normal has been a little bit, but in conversation with a lot of the community members, they wanted to see breakfast. So we've now implemented breakfast over in the Magnolia Cafe a couple months back. And then we're in the process of probably within the next four to six months introducing dinner as well over there. So,

- Okay.

- Lakeland is working on a whole program within the community to kind of give more options for dine-in out there. So,

- 'cause there's not that many restaurants Lakeland,

- There's, there's not. So we've been asked to be part of that project and so we're working on the logistics on that currently.

- That's exciting.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Well, I, I know you guys touched so many people. Have you ever had any interaction with a patient or their family that maybe, I don't know, left a impact on you?

- Every day? Every day? Yeah. I would say probably the most one that stands out is, so I was actually on PTO, this was several months ago and I got a phone call from one of the nursing leaders stating that they had a patient that you know, was terminal unfortunately and was very upset because wasn't gonna see their child get married. So I called chef and got them all paired up. We, you know, worked through some logistics. I made some phone calls and between food service nursing and a lot of people that involved, there was more than that involved. I don't wanna miss anyone. But we pulled together an impromptu wedding up on the unit and you know, that patient was able to see their child get married, which is very impactful. And those are the things that we wanna look for every day is, you know, finding those moments. Because a lot of times those moments can be missed if it's not communicated. So, and that's what we're here for. We're here to not only provide a service to our patients and customers, but also to think outside of the box on how we can do something special that's meaningful to someone. Like that scenario that will give a lasting, you know, memory that will never be forgotten. And those type of things is what we always look for. And you know, with the communication and relationships that we have within this facility, you know, we can embrace those and enhance those moments, you know, to kind of give that experience. So,

- And that was beautiful. We, our team got to help tell that story. Yeah. And that was, that was a really beautiful moment and I was like, if anybody can throw a wedding and a wedding cake together, it's our team for sure. What about you chef? Is there any other moment that

- Sticks out? I think that would probably be one of the most, yeah, we did have a patient who had a brain surgery and all they needed to do was eat so they could go home and she refused to eat anything. She just would not eat for two days and they, so nurse came down and she said, Hey listen, if this patient eats, she can go home. That's all she wants to do. I said, well what does she want? She's like, what she wants is not on your menu. I said, what? Come on, what is it?

- Okay, what is it?

- What is it? And it was fried shrimp. I said that, that's all she wants. No problem. So the team put together some beautiful fried shrimp. We went up, I actually got an opportunity to feed her. Okay. And she ate her fried shrimp next day she was out. It was, it's so small moments, you know, the, the power of, of food healing you. And ultimately our goal is for you to eat good food and go home. Okay. So, you know, with that, I mean, but there's so many moments like that.

- Yeah. That's so sweet. And I think about too, the parent celebration dinners that we started back on Valentine's Day of this year.

- Yes.

- Where new

- Moms and we deliver a lot of babies here. Yeah. New moms did not know what I was getting myself into.

- It was like five yesterday I

- Think so. No, there was 14. 14. There was

- 14 yesterday. Oh. Literally

- 14 meals. So

- 7, 7, 7 babies. Yes. But this isn't for anyone who doesn't know this is a new initiative sponsored by the SGMC Health Foundation where new parents get like a, a gourmet three course meal after they deliver their baby

- As well as in a great baby spoon.

- Yes. So, yeah. So that was special to see. I think we

- Lost that. He doesn't

- Love flaming off.

- I know you get, you get choice of some, some nice dinners, so. Yes.

- Yeah. So my husband and I were expecting and we'll I'm doing October, so I told him, I was like, Hey, we'll get a nice meal afterwards. I was like, you can get a steak if you want to. And he was like, oh really? I was like, yeah,

- Don't forget the cheesecake.

- Oh my gosh. How could I forget? I love the cheesecake. I think that at one point maybe we had talked about how you tried to incorporate local

- Yes.

- Ingredients.

- Yes.

- And can you talk about that a little bit?

- Yeah, so the fresher the produce, the better the outcome. So we partnered with Farmer Brown and when he's got some beautiful seasonal, which is right now, we tried to get as much as we can from Farmer Brown. If you haven't seen him or been over there, check him out. Okay. But everything is that he has is truly local. And local means sustainable. Sustainable means supporting your community. And that's another piece of our puzzles. Not just, you know, being here for the hospital, also for the community. Because without the community, the hospital wouldn't survive.

- Absolutely. Definitely. Are there any fun like traditions or events that the department

- Does? Jason throws great parties. I know

- He

- Sure does. So talk a little bit about the traditional things that we do that your department is a huge part of or

- Even some of some of the fun things like popcorn parties and ice cream, social,

- There's a

- Lot of things we do a lot. Yes. No for, for a system. You know, we love to celebrate our successes and wins and things of that nature. So, you know, we consistently look at different things, whether it be a popcorn party, we have one coming up here next month actually called a top and off party for our new tower. So that's gonna be like popcorn and some little goodies and stuff to go along with it. Constantly do like ice cream socials, you know, we'll have food trucks out from time to time.

- The holiday breakfast,

- Holiday, B breakfasts, Christmas breakfast.

- We love to celebrate a holiday around

- Here. Yes.

- With a special themed menu. I love it. Yes.

- I never realize there's so many holidays till I got here. No. But yeah, I mean we always look at things that people enjoy, you know, depending on the season, you know, we'll tailor it to that, you know, of course when it's hot there's nothing more, you know, refreshing than, you know, like an ice cream sundae bar or things of that nature. But, and then as a group, as a department, you know, we always like to celebrate, you know, it's, we'll probably be doing something here coming up soon, but like, I think it was last year we done like a carnival where we let our associates, we all got in Dunking booth and you know, gave 'em a shot to dunk us. You know, we tried to keep it fun and interactive 'cause they work hard. So

- Do - You know, we gotta do little things, you know, we've done bowling trips, you know, to the bowling alley as a group and things of that nature. We have food service week coming up soon that we'll be celebrating. But always thinking outside of the box and getting to know the people that you're around is important so that you can give 'em something that they're, they're gonna enjoy. So I do sit on the employee recognition program with the hospital as well. So we're constantly looking at ways to give to the team members and look at ways that we can streamline processes to make it a little tighter and easier for the employees. So

- Yeah. And your team does a great job. I feel like our team, the marketing team is always calling on the food services team for help with, you know, because we are in charge of a lot of events and you know, sometimes even last minute things like we have called John Jones, we have to give him a shout out. Our food services manager,

- Retail

- Manager,

- Yes. Retail manager. He does a great job.

- We've called him so many times with a last minute request. Like I need a tray of cookies like tomorrow or today and y'all never disappoint us ever. So you always make it happen.

- Try. That's what we're here for.

- We know that you are definitely a team we can count on. So we, we have a couple fun questions. One that I wanted to ask is if you could, each one of you can answer this, if you could serve a signature dish to, you know, in the cafeteria or to anyone, what would your signature dish be?

- Ooh, there's so many. There's so many good ones. I would have to say the hot honey fried chicken. Yes. Hot honey, fried chicken with some white mac and cheese. A little bit of slaw on the side,

- Making me hungry. Sounds great to me.

- It's

- One of my favorites for myself. I love Thai food so it would probably definitely be a Tish.

- Yeah, okay.

- Like a Pat Sui or something.

- Okay. Do you wanna ask our last question? I normally ask this one but I just ask a food question. Sorry. I

- Know. So we need to know what your favorite meal is in the spice or the cafeteria. And it might be what you just said, but is there another one?

- Very simple. So if you haven't had the smashburger at all Spice.

- Yep, - That's it. I have it way too many times a week. Okay. Little bit of pimento cheese on the bottom.

- Okay.

- Haven't heard that one. Yes, a couple, A couple jalapenos, an onion ring on it. Some pepper jack cheese. That's it. Oh, don't forget the barbecue sauce all day long.

- Oh okay.

- That's my absolute favorite.

- I love that. Yes.

- Okay, so we actually

- Took my favorite take you another one. So other than that, I love when we do the Asian food in the cafeteria. Like yesterday we had the pepper steak. You know, that's probably one of my favorites. I love Asian influence foods, so

- I like those little dumplings. Yes. That we have. Yes.

- Oh, miss Frieda's chicken and dumplings. They're absolutely amazing. So Miss Frieda's been with us for 36 or 37 years now. Wow. And no one makes chicken and dumplings like she does,

- Which

- They're fantastic.

- Yeah. Okay. Well those are both good answers. The smashburger is a common answer to that question. It's yes. Also

- Fried chicken. I mean

- Everyone fried chicken

- Here

- Knows we fried chicken for you.

- Yeah. Everyone knows I'm number one fan of fried chicken for you. Well I think we're coming to the end of our time. Is there anything you guys would like to leave us with? Any final comments or anything? No,

- I mean, food heals the soul and we enjoy it. We do. We're thankful for our team, our leadership here at, at S GM C has been absolutely phenomenal. They've always stood by our side, given us, you know, the tools that we need to operate and I just thank them. Yeah,

- I would agree with that 100%. And you know, I would have to say over, I've been in healthcare now for 15 years. I've always been in food service, but healthcare side for 15 years. I would just say the environment and the compassion and care that this system has is just beyond anything I've seen in my career. So, and the support, you know, always looking at how we can do things better and having that support to bring those ideas to the table, to enhance our services and to enhance what we do throughout the community is just very enlightening. And just, you know, I enjoy coming to work every day. I enjoy my team and you know, some days can be stressful but you actually come into it maybe stressed, but once you get to work, the support that you have just kind of relieves it. So, you know, I'm grateful for that. And you know, the, all the great things that we have coming. So, you know, again, we always have to look at what we can do and how we can do it better. And technology and growth plays a big part in that. And with everything that we have going on currently look forward to, you know, all the things that come.

- Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Well, thank you both for being with us today. Thank you for having us. We appreciate it. Thank you to all of our listeners. Thank you for tuning in. Please continue to like, subscribe and leave a review for the podcast. So until next time.