Why Hospital Food Matters for Reconciliation

Credit:Nourish

Why does hospital food matter for reconciliation? Health care institutions exert a significant cultural influence in Canada. Like everything else, they are the product of Canada’s colonial history and too often perpetuate systemic discrimination embedded in their policies and practices. This was on display with the horrific death of Joyce Echaquan.

So how can health care institutions use their influence to create change? Food is a good place to start. In this film Mair Greenfield from Nourish Healthcare explains how colonialism created an “Indigenous health gap” and how food can play an important role in decolonizing our institutions. It profiles three leading examples of health care institutions practicing anchor leadership by working with Indigenous communities to unlearn colonial ways of operating and by bringing traditional Indigenous recipes, ingredients and ways of knowing into their organizations.