EvergreenHealth recently celebrated the opening of Cafe 128 at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland – a new dining experience that provides patients, visitors and staff with a sustainable menu and a variety of healthy choices. The revitalized cafe offers local, seasonal and sustainable foods and ingredients that support EvergreenHealth’s Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge to improve the health of patients, the community and the environment.
The new Cafe 128 is led by Chef Sudha Sologar, who has designed a menu that represents an assortment of international favorites, as well as traditional American comfort foods. Cafe 128 provides diners with choices for a healthy diet and lifestyle including reduced-calorie and low-sodium options.
“Cafe 128 breaks the mold of the typical hospital dining experience and we are pleased to share this healthy, convenient and refreshing approach with our patients, visitors and staff. In addition to the wide-ranging healthy choices available, we’ve also focused on ways to improve how food impacts the community’s health and our surrounding environment,” EvergreenHealth CEO Bob Malte said.
Cafe 128, located in the Silver zone on EvergreenHealth’s main campus, provides menu items prepared on-demand at individual stations including made-to-order salads, homemade soups, custom-made deli sandwiches and wraps, burgers, hot sandwiches, pasta, Sicilian-style flatbread artisan pizzas and daily entree specials.
The cafe accommodates everyone from providers on-the-go to leisurely visitors – guests can order food to-go, or sit down and enjoy Cafe 128’s spacious dining area that offers both indoor and outdoor seating.
Cafe 128 also elevates EvergreenHealth’s patient food-service offerings and will play a pivotal role in a new concierge-style room service program set to launch this fall. Patients will select from a variety of choices that are compatible with their dietary and nutritional needs. Meals will be made-to-order using the cafe’s same fresh ingredients and attention to detail, and delivered to the patient’s room.
“We look forward to bringing this innovative room-service model to our patients. The service and menu mirror our organization-wide commitment to quality and an exceptional patient experience, and support our patients in what really matters – healing and getting back to their healthiest best,” Malte said.
EvergreenHealth implemented the food-service changes to keep pace with the ever-evolving nutritional research landscape and to provide a new, engaging space to enjoy meals. Cafe 128 replaces Images Cafe, previously located in the Green zone.
EvergreenHealth’s Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge is a driving force in guiding the medical center’s food selections. The pledge aims to reduce the adverse impacts of food production and distribution on public environmental health. According to the pledge, truly healthy food is not only nutritious, but is also produced by a food system that is economically viable, environmentally sustainable and supportive of human dignity and justice.
