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Patient Care and Coordination
Food and Nutrition Services
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Food is Medicine
We believe that food is medicine and that traditional foods aid in a patient’s recovery process. ANTHC Food and Nutrition Services (FANS) provides a variety of traditional foods to inpatients at the hospital. This offers patients at the Alaska Native Medical Center a taste of home while they receive the care they need.
FANS oversees operations of the Alaska Native Medical Center Cafeteria, Patient Housing Café, and Healthy Communities Building Coffee Shop. Operating these services allows us to continually assess and improve our food service operations and offerings.
Donating Traditional Foods for ANMC Patients
Did you know that you can donate hunted and gathered foods to the inpatient food service program at the Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC)? Traditional foods are healing, nourishing medicine, and your donations will be greatly appreciated by patients.
Donations we can accept:
- Most wild game meat and bones (caribou, moose, deer, sheep, goat, and beaver): must be whole, quartered, or roasts; meat cannot be ground
- Most fish and seafood: must be gutted and gilled, with or without heads
- Seal meat and fat
- Plants and berries: whole, fresh, or frozen
All donated items that are received will be used in their entirety. Any leftover, trim or items deemed “unservable” will be distributed to organizations that will utilize them in animal consumption, and waste will go to local organizations that will use it (i.e., Alaska Zoo, Raptor Rehabilitation, etc.).
Donating Traditional Foods:
If you are interested in donating traditional foods to ANMC, please send us an email at nativefood4life@anthc.org.
If you are interested in helping out with ANMC’s Traditional Native Foods Initiative, but do not have access to traditional foods to donate, you can make a financial donation to the Healthy Alaska Natives Foundation by visiting healthyalaskanatives.org/donate.