Karen Hubley has worked at Southwest Health System for almost 11 years.
She’s a certified dietary manager, working in the hospital’s kitchen as the director of food and nutrition, though she and her team have helped people in the broader community.
Her motivation, she said, lies in thinking, “How can we serve the community through the hospital?”
“The hospital is more than patient care,” Hubley said. “I’m here to support the community.”
The kitchen, she said, is pretty much zero-waste: “Our only exception is the leftovers from patients’ trays that we do not repurpose.”
Renew Inc., the women’s shelter in Cortez, and the Bridge Emergency Shelter receive most of its food donations.
Hubley explained how the hospital has a “three-day rule.”
The day that something is prepared counts as Day One, and by Day Three, the food goes to shelters.
The partnership between Bridge and the hospital goes back several years, she said, in an effort “to provide better nutrition for our homeless population.”
To fulfill that goal, in addition to donating food, Southwest Health System donates $5,000 every year to the Bridge to help it cover the weekly cost of milk, eggs and butter. It also helped the shelter purchase a milk machine.
Food items that are no longer shelf stable and can’t be donated are given to employees who raise chickens and pigs.
Plus, throughout the day, employees fill a 5-gallon bucket with food scraps like scrambled eggs, fruit and even maple syrup, which ultimately ends up in the trough.
“The pigs love maple syrup,” she said.
“She also steps out of her regular job to volunteer in the community,” said Jaycee Hart, marketing specialist at Southwest Health System.
Hubley volunteers as a member of Montezuma County’s Food Security Action Team.
“The hospital has been part of the team since its inception,” said Emily Huminski, the director of Team UP, which is the “backbone” of many collaborative efforts in the county.
The Food Security Action Team started seven years ago to foster food security in the county, especially for kids, said Huminski.
Last year, it had a summer meal program for kids that ran out of the Montezuma-Cortez school district. It served kids free breakfast and lunch – parents could come and pick up five days’ worth of meals for their kids at once.
It operated in June and July and served 30,888 meals.
“That works out to 996 meals a day,” said Huminksi. “And we hardly promoted it. The need is telling.”
Yet, it may not run this year – staffing changes at Montezuma-Cortez made it so they’re unable to spearhead it, and there’s a lot of administrative work to do, like tracking meals for reimbursements. Plus, someone has to actually prepare the meals, she said.
What’s more, at a federal level, there are threats to cut the free lunch program that serves kids throughout the school year. In effect, “it’s complicated,” said Huminski.
Aside from last year’s successful summer meal program, the action team also hosts food drives and started other projects, like Grow a Row. That program makes it so “anyone can grow an extra row of produce and donate it to Good Sam’s pantry,” said Hubley.
The hospital also helped Good Sam’s purchase a vehicle for food deliveries and “we work with the Good Food Collective on gleaning trees with local farmers to get fresh fruits to our local pantry,” said Hubley.
There are others within the department that volunteer their time as well.
“The food and nutrition team has some amazing individuals that enjoy sharing with our community,” said Hubley.
One member sat in as a judge at a competition where Girl Scouts deconstructed cookies and made new desserts. Another has volunteered his videography skills and kept score for middle and high school sports games.
“I have seen a change in the attitudes of both the community and within our own walls here at SHS,” Hubley said. “Thanks to everyone’s had work and dedication to improving our home … I am proud to work at Southwest Health System.”
