Southlake turns the table on ‘bland hospital food’

Hospital completes two-year transformation of food service with new menus, infrastructure, restaurants

Southlake Health has completed a transformation of its food services aimed at making hospital food something patients and staff can look forward to eating. 

Over two years, Southlake partnered with a new contractor, Compass Group Canada, to renovate and enhance its food services for improved quality. Completed in December 2024, the project introduced new dining spaces, restaurant options, and expanded menus for hospital visitors. 

Southlake executive vice-president and chief strategy officer Tyler Chalk said they want to push back on preconceptions about hospital food.

“Often people don’t associate hospitals and good food in the same sentence, but we tried to really challenge that stereotype because, at the end of the day, good food and healthy food for patients is not just about improving their experience, it’s about better clinical outcomes and having them nourished and on their way to recovery,” he said.

Southlake Health began the transformation in July 2023, with the awarding of a new contract. Director of support services Johnny Grajcar said that came about through a competitive procurement process, with Compass Group Canada getting a 10-year deal to provide food service and help revamp them within the Newmarket hospital.

That revamp has included everything from new restaurants, a reconstructed patio space, a new culinary model with scratch-cooked meals for patients and a new central cafeteria space with new offerings.

Grajcar said they faced challenges with the spatial limitations at the hospital site, but they worked through them to do more with the space they had.

He said they really wanted to introduce scratch cooking to provide more for patients.

“We know we want to refresh items, we want to be more diverse, we don’t want to have limitations for our patients,” he said. “If we’re going to take this effort to make a change, let’s make it a valuable one for our patients.”

Grajcar said they had a survey with more than 2,000 responses that helped guide the project, which is part of why the hospital added a Starbucks location that was in high demand.

At Southlake, patients receive three meals and up to three snacks every full day of hospitalization, with food services delivering approximately 1,500 meal trays a day to patients when the hospital is fully occupied.

The new chef’s table (retail food) and comfort kitchen (patient food) provide meals cooked from scratch each day, with the kitchen “highly customizable” to accommodate different dietary and other food needs.

Grajcar said they have tried to make their options more diverse, both in terms of presenting more options to patients but also to cultural needs. He said they have options like lamb and fresh fish not necessarily readily available in the past.

“We were able to not only expand the offerings, but actually (expand) it to different patient population types and culture types,” Grajcar said.

On Aug. 7, Southlake Health offered a media tour of the new facilities. Upgrades include a refurbished Tim Hortons with an updated service stream. In the main cafeteria, kitchen staff use multi-purpose ovens to cook in various styles. The hospital also added a new kitchen pod to improve kitchen efficiency.

Compass Group Canada regional vice-president Lisa Slack said they are pushing for fresh cooking across their menus. She also said they ensured to consult with stakeholders to ensure the menu fit the Southlake community.

Compass dietitian Brielle Perl said they also want to ensure proper nutrition in their menu for patients.

“It’s part of being able to use food truly as a tool and a mechanism for that patient’s journey and healing and recovery,” she said.

Southlake dietitian Anastasia Meeks added that, “When patients are eating adequate amounts of food, we see better clinical outcomes.”

She said throughout the transformation, they wanted to ensure all the meals were very “nutritionally dense.”

“We want to make sure that every bit that they’re taking it really counts,” she said. “Because the flavour’s so good, because it’s fresh, because everything is highly customizable, patients are actually eating more and meeting their needs more easily.”

The exact costing of the two-year transformation, part of the new contract with Compass, was not made available over concerns on Compass maintaining competitiveness in bidding for other contracts. Compass Group provides food service across a wide range of businesses and industries, including health care, senior living, education and sports facilities.

However, Grajcar said in terms of meal costs per day per patient, they rank well, in the lowest 25 per cent compared to peer hospitals. 

The hospital said patient feedback has improved with the transformation. Southlake provided one message from a patient describing the food they experienced while in the hospital.

“Thank you all for all of the energy, creativity, planning,” one patient wrote to kitchen staff. The meals have been quite yummy, and tonight, the brownie was the best I’ve ever eaten.”