Adopt these 6 Food Safety Rules from Healthcare Foodservice Directors to Safeguard your Guests

Secure, Screen, Supply, Serve, Space & Stagger

I’m not saying you should or you shouldn’t. The rules are changing too fast for that. But if you do decide to host this year, who better to learn from than healthcare foodservice directors who feed and protect mass quantities of caregivers? As a former foodservice director for Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, I’ve been there and done that. It well prepared me to become the Food Safety Dietitian. I’ve just finished interviewing foodservice directors across the country on how they safeguard their staff who are caring for coronavirus patients. Here are their covid food safety best practices and how you might adapt them for home use.

*This blog was carefully researched and posted BEFORE Franklin County, OH went Covid purple. I didn’t even know purple was an option, but we are there.

#1 SECURE

A foodservice supervisor patrols the café dining room and monitors whether there are too many sharing a table or patrons have regrouped tables so they can dine together. You too can designate a Covid Captain to enforce the rules.  There’s always that one guest who likes to be in charge anyways. This year leverage their annoying desire to direct by deputizing them as the enforcer. Set up the rules of the day, allow them to add a few of their own then put them in charge. Give them a cap or a name tag to make it official.

#2 Screen

Healthcare workers must their report symptoms, are screened at the door and must stay away if they would place others at risk. What’s on your pre-admission checklist? Create a list of Covid questions and work them into the invite conversation.  Doesn’t hurt to remind guests to self-check beforehand and reassure them that you have done your own due diligence. Share if you’ve recently received negative test results or that you have appropriately self-isolated prior to the big day for their protection.

#3 Supply

Hospitals have done their best to make personal protective equipment (PPE) available to protect their heroes and heroines. Create a Sanitizer Station in your foyer. Place single use drying towelettes in the bathroom. Provide disposable masks for those who may have forgotten them. You can create a Holiday Swag bag for your guests with a themed mask, personal hand sanitizer. If you are feeling especially generous, include some KeepSafe Food food safety items as a take home. The fridge magnet was designed to be a great giveaway. And our tote serves as a great swag bag.

#4 Serve

Self-serve buffets are out. Too crowded, too much opportunity for cross contamination. Hosts can serve and guests should approach one at a time.

#5 Space

Unless you invested early in plexiglass panels to separate spaces it’s probably too late to do so now.  But you can spread out. Gathering around the dining room table with all the extra leaves inserted (which may be the only time of year you use them and the whole reason you bought them in the first place) is so 2019. 2020 is the year they should remain in storage. Consider smaller tables, like card tables that seat 4 and set them at least 6 feet apart and better yet in separate rooms. If you have outdoor space and a cooperative climate, seating guests on covered patios, screened porches or in a sheltered garage may make them feel more at ease than being in a confined space. And since masks are removed for dining, groupings can be of families who are in the same bubble or seating arranged based on risk factors.

#6  Stagger

Stagger Start Times and Schedules: Your traditional guest list may be extensive. But it’s minuscule compared to hospital cafés that serve up to 5,000 meals at a time. How do they do that? By staggering staff break times so that patients are still cared for, but staff have tome to nourish. Consider staggering arrival and departure times, or even hosting smaller groups on different days, so that not everyone convenes at once. Healthcare workers are allotted 30 minutes to dine…and often spend 10 of those minutes walking from their work area to the café and back. I’m not encouraging that guests rush through the holiday meal, but it might be a good idea to include both a start and end time when issuing an invite so guests know when to arrive and when they should depart.

And with that, we’ll sign off …but not before doing our good deed for the month.

KeepSafe Food’s Contribution:

Buy 2 Chopping Mats and I’ll Donate 1 to MOW… only $12

From now until Thanksgiving, for every 2 KeepSafe Food chopping mats purchased, I’ll donate 1 to our Local Food Pantry for distribution to their clientele. Or, if you prefer, I’ll send you 3 for the price of 2, and you can give one, or all 3, to the pantry of your choice. How much will this cost you? $12. That’s it. Just click on the link for KSF’s online store. Also accepted:

Venmo (@Mary-Miller-176) Zelle (6146200459) Cash App ($MaryAngelaMiller)