Feeding to Heal
Here’s the problem with writing about feeding people during a pandemic: When the person you’re trying to get hold of is actively doing just that, they’re unavailable. “It’s crazy,” texts Gerneil Franklin, executive chef for the main campus of Henry Ford Health Systems in Detroit— not just once, but several times over the course of a week. Indeed it is. As I write this in May, Michigan is in seventh place in the nation when it comes to confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to an ongoing New York Times case count. That’s a welcome drop from thirdplace in April, though sadly, the state is in fourth place when it comes to deaths. As of May 15, 2020, the confirmed death count in Michigan from COVID-19 was pushing toward 5,000. (Confirmed cases in the state are currently just under 50,000.) Franklin’s place of work is in Wayne County, Michigan’s worst hit by a long shot. Over a third of the state’s confirmed cases and deaths have been recorded there.
As essential as essential workers get, there’s no possibility of doing his job from home. So he’s at the hospital “seven days a week, 12-14 hours a day,” he tells me when he gets a quick break. A typical day starts at 6:30am, when Franklin “hits the ground running,” and begins receiving the food that comes in from various suppliers in the area. In addition to food for the patients filling the hospital’s 800 beds, he has to have enough for the caféteria. Pre-COVID, it served 2,000 customers a day, people visiting patients or coming to the hospital for outpatient services. Now, it’s even busier. “All the workers can’t go anywhere, so we got everyone,” says Franklin. A phone rings. “Hold on, I gotta take this.” It’s something about dry ice and a delivery truck. He’s back. “Where were we?” Franklin’s food supply duties are followed by a staff meeting that outlines his team’s tasks for the day. From there, he heads into the kitchen. “I’m on the line, getting my hands dirty,” he says, then laughs. “I mean, obviously we’ve never washed our hands so much.”
