Veterans at the VA Portland Health Care System has moved from a “cook-chill” system where every lunch and dinner was prepared at the Portland VA Medical Center and trucked over to Vancouver, to one where every meal is cooked there, according to an article on The Columbian website.
Some food preparation, such as cutting up vegetables, is done up to three days before meals are served, but all cooking is done on the same day.
The Nutrition and Food Services department circulates formal surveys to gauge what veterans think of their food.
Satisfaction scores went from 78 percent to 97 percent after cook-chill was eliminated, and plate food waste was reduced by as much as 70 percent.
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