Sometimes the unexpected recognition is the best kind. This morning we had a number of colleagues, peers, and others reach out to congratulate us for being recognized as having one of the Best Burgers in the Bay Area (https://thebolditalic.com/one-of-the-bay-areas-best-burgers-is-at-ucsf-hospital-17a21cf768a8) according to the Bold Italic!! We pushed it out on our social media channels and widely circulated it to our team. Our Better Burger program was re-envisioned by our culinary and procurement team and implemented in August 2017 at all three campuses on the same day. The success of a blended burger (70% beef/30% mushrooms) for patient dining and retail food services prompted us to launch the Even Better Burger (70% turkey/30% mushrooms) in July 2021. These changes are the main reason we have been able to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by more than 12% from our food purchases.
While this unexpected recognition was fantastic (no one on our team was actually interviewed for the article), the best part was seeing the pride from the Nutrition and Food Services team who heard from their friends and colleagues about the article. Our department mission is to be the “best provider of nutrition and food services”. Recognition like this article help validate we’re on the right track.