Nutrition and Food Services Receive 'Star' Awards

The Department of Nutrition and Food Services at UCSF Medical Center has recently been awarded two "star" awards from both national and local organizations. UCSF is one of five facilities in the US -- and the only medical center -- to receive the 2004 Circle of Stars Award from Computrition, a privately owned corporation that provides software solutions for the hospitality and health care industries. The Computrition program was implemented over the last three years at the medical center and supports department-wide food purchasing, inventory, production and service to patients and the public, as well as nutritional care for patients. Registered dietitians Leslie Haynes and Patricia Booth, as well as others on the team from Nutrition and Food Services and Information Technology, implemented the program. The Rising Star award was presented April 20 by the Haight Ashbury Food Service Job Training Retention Project for the medical center's program to provide learning experiences for a number of students. This is part of the department's commitment to education, in addition to providing a number of externships for students in other culinary programs in the Bay Area and maintaining a 12-month accredited dietetic internship since 1934. The Haight Ashbury program provides in-depth assessment, training, job search, job placement and job retention services to 24 to 30 participants per year. The job training portion of the project consists of a 12-week intensive program -- 32 hours per week -- including hands-on cooking, food service theory classes, life skills and individual and group counseling.