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Chef prepares special Thanksgiving meal for healthcare workers and patients

While our celebrations at home are a little smaller this year, chefs are preparing meals at hospitals for patients, caregivers and staff.

TOLEDO, Ohio — Our celebrations at home are a little smaller this year. But at hospitals, chefs are preparing meals for patients, caregivers and staff.

Chef Hannah Robertson is used to cooking for a large group of people and with a background in fine dining. She loves to prepare the annual Thanksgiving feast.

"Roast turkey. We're doing that with mashed potatoes and gravy. We're doing green beans, homestyle stuffing, cranberry and orange relish and then it's served with a side of dinner rolls, butter and each year we do a pie," said Robertson. "This year it's pumpkin."

"Chef Hannah" says getting used to cooking at the hospital has been different... But it's a challenge she embraces.

"It's kind of unusual as a chef because you really have to be on the details. You've got to look at food allergies, how people eat, mechanical diets, things like that. So it's a lot more intense than being in a restaurant," Robertson said.

This year, she and her team will be cooking up 480 pounds of turkey breast, 432 pounds of stuffing, 490 pounds of mashed potatoes and 400 pounds of green beans to feed 1,200 people.

That includes all staff and patients spending Thanksgiving at ProMedica.

"We have a special menu we produce every year, it goes on the patient's trays in the morning and they get that choice between lunch and dinner," Robertson said.

It's all in the hopes to make the holiday feel a bit more special when they can't spend it with friends and family.

"One thing that's really resonated with me is that when you're here as a patient, there aren't many choices, right? People are coming into your room, they're checking on you, getting poked and prodded," said Robertson. "But the one thing you get to pick is you can choose your food."

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