Saint Al’s, St. Luke’s hospitals open mini-grocery stores to protect health care workers
Hospitals around the Treasure Valley are making grocery shopping a little easier for their employees amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Mini-grocery stores are now in place at Saint Alphonsus hospitals in Boise, Nampa and Ontario, and at St. Luke’s hospitals in Boise, Meridian, Nampa and Twin Falls. The makeshift stores began after staffers began making room in their cafeterias.
Instead of having to wait in line at a supermarket and be exposed to more people to buy a gallon of milk or toilet paper, employees can grab what they need from the hospital’s store, check out and be on their way home.
Administrators wanted to do whatever they could to make things easier on their employees, according to Saint Al’s director of operations and mission leader Sheri Ainsworth.
“We wanted to find opportunities to support them,” Ainsworth said.
The hospital’s food and nutrition staff began moving around their kitchen’s storage space to accommodate the needed groceries. Ainsworth said the hospital system tries to get items that might be difficult to find at stores, such as milk, eggs, chicken, ground beef and other staples. Dry goods such as flour and sugar are also available for purchase.
Employees will be able to buy toilet paper and paper towels as well. Ainsworth said the hospitals get the grocery items through their regular supply chains and not through local supermarkets. They buy in bulk and the only markup for sales is to cover repackaging, she said.
Whenever Saint Al’s employees need to find groceries, they can stop at the hospital’s cafeteria to find the makeshift store.
The St. Luke’s Groceries2Go program started at its Meridian hospital before being rolled out to other medical centers. Groceries available include bread, milk, cheese, lunch meat and more everyday staples. At the Boise hospital, St. Luke’s will be rolling out prepared meals for employees to take home to families.
“St. Luke’s hope is to support our amazing staff that is working on the front lines, some doing 10+ hour shifts in the cold and rain in tents to provide care, employees on the floors that are working 12+ hours and the last thing on their mind when leaving is having to run to the store for a gallon of milk, and also being able to eliminate potential exposure by having to do so,” said St. Luke’s public relations manager Anita Kissée in an email.
For Saint Al’s, the first medical center to roll out the mini-store was Nampa. The Boise hospital’s opened on Tuesday, and the Ontario hospital debuted its grocery store Thursday, according to Ainsworth.
“Our colleagues are so ecstatic about it,” Ainsworth said. “They’re really, really happy about this.”
In addition to the convenience, Ainsworth addressed the security of setting up the stores. Each person inside the hospital is screened at the door for a fever or other COVID-19 symptoms, something that won’t happen at grocery stores.
The Saint Al’s stores are available only for employees and are open seven days a week in the hospitals, and they will continue to be stocked with groceries until further notice, Ainsworth said.
The coronavirus outbreak has understandably caused a great deal of anxiety among health care workers, she said.
“This allows us to care for them so they can continue to care for our community,” Ainsworth said.
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 5:12 PM.
