Cultural Competence and Heritage Cuisine for Foodservice Professionals

Mainstage

11:30-12:30 PM

Speakers: Danielle Kronmuller, DHSc, RDN (West Chester University) | John J Hudak Jr., CEC, AAC (Geisinger) | Emily Black MS, RD, LDN (Geisinger)

What is culture and why is being culturally competent so important? Diaspora to the United States continues to rapidly grow. This is radically changing the cultural norms and ethnic composition across the Nation. Staying refreshed and abreast of cultural knowledge is essential to provide exceptional patient care. This cultural expertise requires the hospitality professional to respect other’s beliefs and values and then utilize knowledge to execute a culturally appropriate plan of care. Use the knowledge gained in this presentation to improve the quality of patient care and better enhance patient outcomes. Cultural considerations in nutrition and food preparation discussion and mock case studies will engage the room and provide practice scenarios to critically think through food service-related cultural challenges. Your patients deserve this! Danielle will walk attendees through the continuum of cultural competence, helping attendees to reflect on their personal readiness to provide culturally competent care.

To help deliver a practical application, John and Emily will present their strategic implementation of a complex heritage cuisine program across a large rural hospital system. Beginning in the spring of 2022, their heritage cuisine program successfully transformed their retail menu into a 6-month seasonal menu, developed a cultural events calendar with paired cuisines, and wove in their Employee Resource Groups to support the process. Attendees will learn to:

Attendees will learn to:

— Describe the continuum of cultural competence and reflect on personal readiness to provide culturally competent care.
— Analyze cultural food considerations between ethnic groups.
— Propose culturally sensitive suggestions for food service operations.
— Understand how to implement a successful heritage cuisine program, source ingredients, and utilize employee input.