For the last two years, the cafeteria staff in the Food & Nutrition Services Department at Jackson County Memorial Hospital has been practicing new culinary techniques to enhance their cooking and food prepartation skills. In 2001, the program "Destination 10" was implemented into every stage of food production and presentation. It was designed to demonstrate improvements in teamwork and creativity and to increase patient satisfaction.

Recently, eight employees became Graduated Chefs from the Destination 10 program. Kris Pendergraft, Vickie Redman, Robin Manning, Deb Delk, Margarita Alfaro, Lavetta Jones, Pam Look and Gayle Dickinson received certificates of graduation. Each completed a variety of food preparation skills, garnishments, time managment, and leadership skills.

Under the direction of Danielle Jensen, Director of the Food and Nutrition Services Department, there are 40 employees responsible for the daily planning, production and serving of meals. According to Jensen, "Increasing our patient satisfaction scores on the inpatient surveys was the best of the all successes we've celebrated. Seeing the changes over the last two years shows me that it's been worth the extra time and training. Our patients and employees tell us how good the food is."

The JCMH Cafeteria serves each meal at designated times throughout the day. Breakfast is served from 6:15 to 8:30 a.m. Lunch is served from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Supper is served from 5 to 6:30 p.m. The cafeteria is open for employees and visitors.