It never ceases to amaze me how people can actually pass off trays of something resembling food and call it nutrients.

Today for example, the lunch main course is beef ravioli. I use the word beef generously, not actually believing that it is, in fact really beef, or even mostly beef. And IF there is beef in it, I highly doubt that is a highly nutrient-rich beef. Not to just focus on the filling, let’s talk about the ravioli as a whole. In my travels, I have been fortunate enough to partake in ravioli as it was intended. In Italy, with handmade pasta, the freshest ingredients grown from nutrient-rich soil and prepared with the utmost skill and love. Love – here is a concept I believe lost nowadays in food. And by this, I mean that we actually CARE we are feeding others. That we actually care what it tastes like and that it is fundamentally providing someone with the vitamins and minerals that they need to live. But I digress..

Back to the ravioli at hand. So, having tasted the Olympus of ravioli, I was realistic in my expectations and that this was NOT going to be a similar experience. I am well aware of this resounding fact, yet as I stare at my plate of Chef Boyardee, I physically laugh out loud. Not only have we been shoveled out the lowest form of a ravioli-like substance, but it has been cooked or should I say re-heated to the point of oblivion, barely clinging to my fork.

Yes, I actually ate it. Don’t judge! And I ate the over-boiled zucchini, dollop of cottage cheese (my “protein supplement” I requested) and something resembling a brownie. I think.. Hell, at least it is calories in some form.

This is only one example of a multitude of meals I have been subjected to while I spend my days recovering from a pressure sore surgery. This has been my first experience within the walls of a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) and I was given ample horror stories of which I was skeptical and couldn’t believe that things were that bad. I was wrong! How am I supposed to heal from major surgery on this lack of nutrition? And for every other elderly patient in here, what sort of a disservice are we doing our family members in feeding them this groule? I mean, powdered eggs of some unknown origin? And don’t even get me started on the “Table Syrup”! So fake they can’t even call it maple. Ingredients read: corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, water, natural and artificial maple flavor, potassium sorbate as preservative, caramel color, citric acid.

Where did we go wrong?! How can this actually be justified?