‘Food is medicine’: Bon Secours St. Francis program takes fresh approach to patient meals

Walking into the Bon Secours St. Francis Downtown hospital kitchen could leave you with an unexpected impression.

You might see fresh fried chicken on a cart ready for service as you enter and put on your hairnet. Walk through the kitchen, hang a left and baker Nina Mayes — it’s “Miss Nina” to anyone in the kitchen — might be piping icing onto scratch-made cakes.

Turn around and make a left and you may see local chef and Food Network alum Stephen C. Baity crafting an ornate, custom-made dinner for a patient a few stories up, possibly even in the hospice wing.

Culinary health care provider HHS, in collaboration with Transformed Culinary Solutions, launched the initiative “Hospitality Reimagined: The Shift, The Story, The Standard,” beginning with the downtown hospital.

Transformed Culin