Sodexo Cares: Creating Smiles at Children’s Hospitals
By Mindi Gale and Karen Graham, Senior Recruiters

Sodexo General Manager Shawn Goldrick

It is hard to imagine anything more daunting to a child than to be a patient in a pediatric ward. At Sodexo, we are committed to doing all that we can to help pediatric patients and their families during their hospital stay. Towards this goal, Dick Desrochers, President of our Hospitals Division, recently hosted an innovation forum to identify and showcase the best practices of Sodexo’s food service teams working within pediatric hospitals. A key objective of the forum was to identify top practices and programs at individual hospitals that could be adopted in our pediatric accounts nationwide to help make the patient stay less difficult and less institutional.

Teams from forty-seven Sodexo pediatric accounts from across the country gathered in Texas to share their innovations, and they competed to be recognized by their colleagues as having the best practices. From this forum, new standards will be established as the Sodexo Pediatric Brand.

Kayla Goldrick, Sodexo General Manager Shawn Goldrick’s daughter

According to Shawn Goldrick, General Manager at Children’s Hospital Boston, "We attended the forum in Texas to share some of our more successful initiatives.” Shawn brought with him the gecko logo (pictured above) that was selected by the children at his unit and that serves as a mascot on their printed materials. He also shared their Guest Chef Series, where a restaurant chef comes in for the day for exhibition cooking. The Guest Chef travels to the patient units and involves the children in display cooking. The children who are able to attend the event are presented with a chef jacket and hat, and it is truly an event that puts smiles on their faces and, for a moment, helps to distract them from their situation.

After a vote from the attendees, Shawn Goldrick and his team were the "people’s choice” 1st place winners for the best pediatric brand innovations. As the best practices are adopted throughout our pediatric accounts, we will look forward to helping make that next pediatric visit just a little more easy on the patient and family.

To learn more about the emphasis Sodexo places on helping individuals and families during their stays at a hospital or a long-term care facility, click here: Sodexo CARES. CARES stands for Compassion, Accountability, Respect, Enthusiasm and Service, behaviors that guide the way we interact with our clients and our customers in hospitals and long-term care facilities.