BANGOR, Maine — The mashed potatoes and squash were steaming in their trays. The roast turkey and ham were sliced. The cheesecake and apple pie were chilling in a refrigerator.
At around 11 a.m. Thursday, the kitchen staff at Eastern Maine Medical Center sprung into action and began to assemble lunch trays for patients and hospital staff.
There were no long faces or complaints, however, from staffers working on Christmas Day. A festive mood reigned in the bustling kitchen, and the knowledge that the holiday meal would be going to patients and workers, who get a free Christmas lunch, was enough to keep everyone energized.
“I like doing things for people, catering for people,” said EMMC employee Cyril Doucette of Old Town before he coated large pans with vegetable spray so that the mashed potatoes and squash, which he fixed himself that morning, wouldn’t stick to the metal. “It’s pretty much all I’ve done, all my life. And I like a good, festive meal,” he said.
About 40 employees, including clinical staff, kitchen workers and cafeteria employees, are needed to keep the hospital staff and patients fed on Christmas Day. The kitchen served its special Christmas lunch to 161 patients Thursday, said kitchen manager Myrna Davis, along with several dozen more meals to workers.
Family members and visitors also may eat the hospital lunch, although they must pay for their meal. One family with a relative in the hospital, Davis said, ordered five meals so the group could eat Christmas dinner together.
Patients had a choice of traditional holiday foods, which they picked out Christmas Eve from menus. For main dishes, patients could pick roast turkey or ham. The trimmings include mashed potatoes and squash, stuffing, green beans, and a choice of chocolate cream pie or apple pie.
Some meals were altered for patients who must monitor sugar or salt intake. Diabetic patients, for example, were given a dietetic vanilla cherry chiffon cheesecake. Others were given low-salt gravy. Food was pureed for some patients.
“The menu has been adapted to meet all of the special diets they need to meet their particular medical needs,” said Lorraine McKelvie, the hospital’s clinical nutrition manager and the nutrition services manager for the day.
The chefs had been working since after 7 a.m., when the breakfast meal is served, to put Christmas lunch together. Doucette made the potatoes out of frozen slices, to which he added milk, butter substitute, salt and pepper. The squash got a dose of brown sugar and more butter substitute.
By 11:05 a.m., the meat and trimmings were loaded into hot tables so that individual trays could be assembled and then delivered to patients starting at around 11:30. One worker readied the tray covers. Another stuck a thermometer among the turkey slices, to make sure the correct temperatures were maintained.
Staff members work on a holiday rotation so they don’t have to work both Thanksgiving and Christmas in the same year. Many schedule their own family celebrations around their work schedules. McKelvie’s family had a large gathering Christmas Eve at her home in Millinocket, while Doucette planned to celebrate with his family Christmas night.
Workers didn’t seem to mind being in the kitchen while others were home celebrating. McKelvie said uniform regulations are relaxed a little, which kitchen staffers such as Bruce Guimond took advantage of in his red-and-green plaid vest and Christmas-themed tie. Some workers were snapping photographs. There was a box of peppermint-chocolate candy in the office.
“There’s a spirit in the department, a joy to be here,” McKelvie said. “People are upbeat and happy. It certainly doesn’t dampen anyone’s emotions to be working Christmas. We realize illness doesn’t take a holiday.”
The idea of a Christmas meal had EMMC patient Dolores Brown longing for her own cooking, especially because she is on a pureed and cardiac diet since suffering a stroke recently. For Christmas dinner, the 69-year-old Presque Isle native traditionally makes a glazed ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, a “fabulous” raspberry sauce and apple, pumpkin and lemon pies.
Brown, who is undergoing rehabilitation for the effects of her stroke, picked both ham and turkey as a main dish, in case she didn’t like one or the other.
Her hospital lunch came with a scoop each of Doucette’s potatoes and squash, cranberry sauce, decaffeinated tea and diet chocolate pudding. Everything came pureed. Even her drinking water has a thickening agent added to it for fear Brown will aspirate something into her lungs.
“It’s not something I’m used to, being on pureed food. Everything I have is thickened, even my water,” Brown said. “It wets your whistle, but it’s thick.”
Despite the unpleasant texture of the food, Brown has been showing the kitchen staff her appreciation by writing short notes on the menus she returns to them each day. On her Christmas night dinner menu she wrote, “Beautiful job. Merry Christmas. The Best is the Best. What Can I Say.”
Before tucking into her meal, Brown used a knife to cover her potatoes and squash with margarine, and closed her eyes to say a short prayer.
“Bless all these wonderful people you’ve brought across my path,” she said, her head bowed, “and may you bless all the hands that prepared this food.”