Thanksgiving dinners on tap for Food Institute clients
Those who attend the Butler Health System Food Institute can look forward to gobbling up a healthy and delicious Thanksgiving dinner, and all of their own making.
Breanna Lamberger, nutritional health liaison at the Food Institute, said she has ordered enough food to pack bags for 200 clients to make a fresh Thanksgiving dinner for themselves and their families.
She explained that BHS doctors' offices ask their patients trigger questions that can reveal food insecurity.
The office then contacts the Food Institute to refer the patient for lessons on buying and preparing healthy food at home.
Food Institute clients even receive knife sets, cutting boards, can openers or other accessories they may need to prepare fresh and healthy meals that they did not need when living on processed, prepared or frozen foods.The clients come once per month for six months to the Food Institute, which is just off the lobby at the Brady Street entrance to Butler Memorial Hospital, where they receive nutritional education and hands-on training in preparing fresh and healthy foods.
The bags containing holiday dinner ingredients and recipes will be distributed to clients throughout November, but the bags will contain roasting chickens instead of turkeys.“Turkeys are hard to get, but chickens are fairly similar,” Lamberger said.She said the holiday meal bags will come at a challenging time for her clients at the Food Institute, many of whom are low-income residents.“Especially right now, food prices are very high and even if you can get to the store, a lot of stores are having supply issues and they just might not have what you need,” Lamberger said.A healthier version of mashed potatoes that uses a little olive oil and skim milk instead of butter, sweet potato mash, apple/cranberry/walnut salad, healthy green bean casserole, herbed stuffing, roast chicken and pumpkin tarts are components of the Thanksgiving menu created for clients, who will prepare all the dishes for themselves using provided recipes.
“They are pretty much standard recipes with simple little swaps to make them a little bit healthier,” Lamberger said. “If I can get one person to make one healthy change to their diet that they are going to stick with, to me that's worth it.”She said the Food Institute has seen 300 referrals from doctors since opening in April, and nine graduates of the program.Some who keep Greek yogurt in their refrigerators now had never heard of it before, while others focus on eating more fruits and vegetables.“I have people who have lost weight and are no longer diabetic after six months in this program,” Lamberger said.Some clients who are not interested in cooking bring their older children, who learn to prepare the healthy meals, she said.Lamberger said more information, recipes, videos and a donation button are available on the Food Institute page at https://www.butlerhealthsystem.org/Services/BHS-Food-Institute.aspx. Every dollar donated goes directly to the Food Institute.
