Food Trucks Feed Need for Late-Night Employees, Visitors
Employees and visitors at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth have a variety of food options during the day, but their options dwindle as it gets late.
Anyone who has worked the night shift, or stayed overnight with a loved one, knows it can be tough to find food late at night.
“People were eating out of vending machines or leaving to get food,” said Alexa Stoner, B.S.N., R.N., CA-SANE, nursing supervisor in the Emergency Department. “It’s not safe to be walking off campus that late at night. And if we get slammed with a trauma, I can’t just grab someone to come help and have them take their break a little later.”
Offering support
After a particularly difficult month in the Emergency Department, leaders wanted to do something special for the staff. They brought in a comfort dog as well as a food truck, and treated employees to dinner.
“I wondered, ‘Well, if they let us do it one night, maybe it was a possibility to do it more,’” Alexa said. “So I wrote an SBAR and sent it to my manager.”
Orianna Nibarger, M.S.N., M.B.A., R.N., ED manager, was on board immediately.
“Employees have a very narrow window of time when they can get something to eat, so it’s hard to leave,” she said.
Orianna worked with the Compliance Department to set some ground rules. Trucks can’t park on hospital property, so they park on a small public street between the ED and the main hospital.
Innovation applauded
Joseph DeLeon, hospital president, was also supportive, Alexa said.
“This is a great example of seeing a problem and coming up with an innovative solution that helps both employees and consumers,” he said. “Alexa and Orianna also made sure to go through all the proper channels to make sure that all regulations and policies were followed.”
Organizing the program was tough in the beginning, but that changed quickly.
“At first, I just started calling food trucks randomly to get them to come,” she said. “Once I found the first truck, it kind of steamrolled. We’re up to 10 trucks that are routinely scheduled. At first I just asked what days they wanted to come, but now I have to limit each truck to a certain number of times a month.”
The first night was a learning experience for everyone.
“The first truck underestimated demand and ran out of food in 30 or 40 minutes,” Orianna said. “They were shocked at how many people came. They were really hesitant at first, but now they’re coming to us and asking how to get in the lineup.”
Building community
Alexa schedules the trucks months ahead of time and started a Facebook group to let people know which trucks are coming. Truck operators often post their menus on the page, and employees offer plenty of feedback. Some operators even share their cellphone numbers, so employees can text their orders and pick up the food when it’s ready.
Alexa tries to have both a food truck and a coffee truck each night, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. One regular is Go-Coffee, run by Alex Lee, at left, whose brother and sister-in-law both work at the hospital.
“My brother works at night, and he’s always telling me that sometimes he needs coffee, and he doesn’t like the coffee in the machines as much,” Alex said. “So when Alexa was looking for trucks, we connected through a friend.”
Once the trucks started coming, word quickly spread. Now customers include physicians on the medical staff, and emergency medical technicians, as well as employees and family members from the main hospital and Cook Children’s Hospital.
“I have a family member whose kid is there a lot,” Alexa said. “When she’s there, she comes out to the trucks. Then she spread the word to other families. It’s not only a place to come eat in the middle of the night, but it gives them a place to kind of take a little hike and get away from the hospital for a few minutes.”
Helping consumers, business
It’s a win-win for both vendors and consumers, Orianna said.
“They’re supporting us, and we’re supporting small businesses in our community,” she said.
Employees say they appreciate the convenience and the variety of sampling different cuisines each night, including barbecue, Louisiana specialties, Turkish food, tacos, gourmet macaroni and cheese, and even Laotian-Latino fusion.
“I didn’t know about them at first, but now that I do, I come pretty often,” said Isabella Orecchia, R.N., Neuro-Telemetry. “I like having the different options, especially at this hour. It’s better than having grilled cheese every night.”
By Robin P. Loveman • Posted January 21, 2020
