How traditional food is helping Indigenous patients heal at Alaskan hospital - Publication Date |
- Jan 28, 2022
- Episode Duration |
- 00:37:26
Hospitals aren’t usually known for having memorable cuisine. But at the Alaska Native Medical Center, the standard bland “tray food” has been set aside in favour of a restaurant-style approach complete with a menu that offers at least 60 per cent Indigenous foods, dishes like reindeer stew, seal soup, herring eggs, and fiddlehead pizza.
You'll hear from Amy Foote, the executive chef for the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. Many of the ingredients she works with are donated by hunters and fishers from communities across Alaska. Foote has learned how to prepare traditional recipes and brings her own gourmet flair to the food.
Vivian Echavarria runs the hospital’s food service program and made traditional food a priority. She tells Unreserved host Rosanna Deerchild about the difference a taste of home can make for patients traveling to Anchorage for treatment. Many of the patients have never been outside their small remote communities before coming to the hospital, and food is an important way to feel connected to their home, their land and their culture.
Jessilyn Dunegan, a nutritionist and dietician with the Alaska Native Medical Centre, tells us about the health benefits that come from eating foods like seal and moose.