Food a hot topic at Whangarei Hospital

Nurse Nisha Kumar and her husband Anil Kumar at their Southern Indian cuisine cart, temporarily providing hot food for Whangarei Hospital staff.

With the main kitchen out of action at Whangarei Hospital, staff were looking at weeks of cold cuts and salads for dinner in their canteen.

Catering services have continued to deliver the patients' hot meals out of a temporary kitchen at the hospital while the main facility's floor is resealed.

But the secondary kitchen - set up in the former maternity ward's delivery suite- does not have the capacity to cook enough hot food to supply staff meals as well.

Enter a solution that has hit the spot - two food trucks operating in the hospital's grounds.

Every day at break and meal times there are queues of staff and contractors lined up at the Southern Indian cuisine cart, parked by the hospital chapel, and Cafe de Curb, which offers a varied range of western food.

"It's awesome, really tasty," said Emergency Department doctor Peter Davies, from the United Kingdom, as he purchased his lunch yesterday.

Commercial services manager Debbie Borovich said the idea to provide hot food by that method came from two staff members whose husbands both owned truck-based catering businesses.

Staff and visitors have made the most of the different styles of food on offer.

"It was good to look outside the box and come up with a solution that suited everyone," Ms Borovich said.

"What they're both preparing is within our healthy food guidelines and have been assessed by one of our dieticians."

The carts, originally intended to operate during the day, proved so popular that the operators were asked to extend their hours to the evening dinner period too, she said.

"Once we move back to the main kitchen, it'll be over, though."That could be in the next week.