Hospital board won't eat the food either: OPSEU
CHESLEY, ON, Nov. 26 /CNW/ - The Board of Directors of the South Bruce Grey Health Centre met Nov. 24 in Chesley and, for the first time, ordered catered food from outside the facility. Staff members previously served home cooked meals from the hospital cafeteria at board meetings.
The union representing the food service workers says this demonstrates what its members have been saying about re-thermed food.
"No wonder the hospital CEO would not accept our challenge; the people who made this decision have no intention of eating the food themselves," said Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
Last month Thomas challenged hospital CEO Paul Davies to eat the food for a week. Although Davies declined the challenge, he did admit he would lose weight eating the food. In conjunction, OPSEU made a donation of $1,000 to the four hospital foundations.
Yesterday the hospital announced that they will no longer be microwaving the food, which they say was often overcooked or undercooked. The hospital says it will be moving to a convection-style oven system for Chesley and Durham which have converted to the re-thermed food structure.
"This is yet another setback for a system that was badly flawed from the start," said Thomas. "The members have been doing their best in trying circumstances, but they just couldn't make this work."
OPSEU says the hospital should scrap its plan completely and make use of Ministry of Agriculture grants to bring in fresh locally-grown food instead.
The union has not been officially informed of the change.
For further information:
David Cox
OPSEU Staff Representative
1-800-268-7376
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