Hospital Food? It's What's For Dinner

The pot roast is a favorite — slow-cooked, tender and savory without being salty. Then there's the popular Parmesan-crusted tilapia, the spicy sweet-and-sour chicken, the hearty mushroom stroganoff.

We're not talking restaurant fare here. This is hospital food — specifically, Florida Hospital food — and in a new partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank, it's now helping to feed people at Central Florida soup kitchens, homeless shelters, respite programs for the sick and charities that serve people with disabilities.

Until now, it's also food that would have ended up in the garbage.

"In many ways, it's some of the most significant food we receive," said Greg Higgerson, Second Harvest's vice president of development. "Florida Hospital has a real commitment to fresh food and healthy food prepared in a tasty way."

The donated meals are fare cooked for the hospital's patients, visitors and employees but never served. Instead, the surplus is carefully packaged, labeled, frozen and then picked up by refrigerated Second Harvest trucks, which typically take it straight to the shelters and charities.

Read more about the healthy hospital meals and their potential at the Orlando Sentinel.