Health Nutrition Sustainability at Ronald Reagan Medical Center

Food waste is one of the key sustainability issues in large-scale healthcare environments.

Dining services must meet multiple demands for patient nutritional needs, dietary limitations,

sanitation requirements, and operational effectiveness. Our project examines sustainability

measures implemented by the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center’s (RRUMC) Food and

Nutrition team and their effectiveness in mitigating food waste through these measures. The

purpose of our study is to comprehend the scope of food waste produced in hospitals, specifically

looking at how it can be measured and reduced without compromising the quality of services and

operations—a critical sustainability issue in the operations of healthcare services and facilities.

Throughout our project we established connections with staff, took facility tours, and obtained

food waste and retail sales data. The Last-Call Initiative, a sustainability initiative created by the

Food and Nutrition team, became our team’s main focus of analysis. Through analysis of sales

data and food waste logs, we were able to measure the effectiveness of the Last-Call Initiative,

allowing us to highlight its success and help nutrition and cafeteria staff understand what they are

doing right, as well as what could possibly be improved upon in terms of food waste

sustainability. Our project sought to create transparency and inform the Sustainability team about

the successful measures which have been put in place by the Food and Nutrition team. In order to

promote understanding, our team created multiple charts and graphics which clearly demonstrate

the impacts and importance of hospital initiatives on mitigation of food waste.

Stakeholders: Antonio Marino, Sustainability Program Analyst, and Chatura De Silva, Sustainability Coordinator

Team Leads: Elise Dunn and Kara Malone

Team Members: Daniel Wang, Klara Parang, Megan Thornton, Annie Bryant, Jack Boyd

Health Nutrition Sustainability at Ronald Reagan Medical Center Final Draft