Hospital Food

Almshouses, which predated hospitals in colonial America and were funded through local taxes, sheltered and took care of the sick, poor, elderly, and mentally ill. Watchers (or nurses), soldiers, and wives often cooked food in these early houses. The first voluntary hospital opened in Philadelphia in 1752. New York Hospital opened in 1771, the Marine-Hospital Fund was passed in 1798, and Massachusetts General Hospital opened in 1821. The first hospitals were viewed as houses of death and failure because people often fared worse than they did at home. Beer, wine, or port was given to the inmates for medicinal and restorative purposes through the end of the nineteenth century. Watchers prepared special diets through the 1840s but were poorly trained. The 1850s witnessed an increase in nurse training in placing food, such as beef tea and potatoes. The creation of centralized kitchens and full-time cooks spread, and diets for different illnesses became more common. Florence Nightingale’s Notes on Nursing (1859) in England made a significant impact on taking, serving, and preparing food by this increasingly feminized position. Her suggestions included types and amounts of foods, like beef tea, eggs, wine, milk, oats, and barley, but they called the nourishment and use of jelly into question.