Employees of St. Joseph’s Hospital came together Thursday night for food, fun and fellowship.
Staff and their families shared the wide cultural and culinary diversity of the members with samples of various cultural dishes. The mission committee had the idea for the evening, said Greg Hoffort, executive director of the health foundation.
“They do all kinds of great activities that staff come out to and enjoy, and associate with one another away from work,” he said.
“We just thought as a mission committee that we might like to celebrate the multiculturalism in our staff and this might be a good way to introduce their cultures,” said committee member Kendra Memory. “And also to put it out there as to how ethnically diverse it is at St. Joe’s.”
Memory said the committee approached different staff members and asked if they’d be willing to, for a small cost recovery fee, share something from their native country and have it open to staff members to partake.
“We have several different tables with doctors, housekeeping staff, different departments involved,” Memory said. “You could buy a ticket at the door and that gives you a sample of each dish.”
People have come from across the globe to work at St. Joseph’s and an event like this highlights exactly how diverse it is.
“It’s a very diverse staff,” said Hoffort. “We have 300 staff members at St. Joseph’s Hospital, and they’re really diverse, from all over the world. You walk around the room and you see Russia, Ukraine, Nigeria, Hungary, Italy, Egypt, Pakistan, and that’s very representative of our staff. They’re here from all over the world.”
Estevan has come a long way in its diversity in recent year, Memory said.
“It’s a way to celebrate the staff and let them introduce the rest of us and their co-workers to a little bit of their country,” Hoffort said.
The idea is to get this to become a yearly event, Memory said.
“We’ll see how this year goes,” she said.
Hoffort said he was looking forward to tasting a bit of everything at the event.
