2020 Awards

2020 AHF Award Winners

Our AHF Awards program is designed to recognize the best practices and foodservice outcomes as well as the generous spirit of our AHF members.


Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award is AHF's highest award. It recognizes operator members who best exemplify the leadership and spirit of Jacques Bloch and Angelo Gagliano, the founders of our legacy organizations.

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Director, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Dave began his career at Edward-Elmhurst Health in Chicago starting as a food service supervisor in 1992 and advancing to Director of Hospitality Services leading Food, EVS and Laundry Services until 2016. Since that time, he has been serving as the Director of Culinary Foodservice for St. Jude Children's Hospital.
He has served in a variety of capacities in AHF from committee chair to President. He is a tireless volunteer and willing to take on any challenge. Dave is also a strong supporter of the culinary competition. Teams from both Elmhurst and St. Jude have won the prestigious AHF culinary competition gold medal.
Dave’s contributions to the self-operated foodservice industry and AHF are many. His work ethic, commitment, data-driven, and people-centered approaches have made a lasting impact for others. I was fortunate enough to work alongside Dave for a number of years on the board. I am grateful for the experience and honored to hand the award to both a colleague and friend. Congratulations Dave.





Making A Difference Award

The Making a Difference Award is given annually to an AHF Business Partner member or Media members and given in honor of John Cabot and is the association’s top award for both business partners and media, and it is presented to someone who has made significant contributions to AHF in the tradition of selfless industry leadership.

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Director of Marketing, Hormel Foods Corporation
Annemarie began her career at Hormel Foods in 2002 in the HR department and then moved into the Foodservice division of the company. Annemarie has served as a brand manager, national sales manager – Healthcare, Innovation Team lead and started her most current role as director of marketing in 2018. Throughout her accomplished career, she has served on many committees, as a conference co-chair and as a board member, including IAB Chair (Industry Advisory board) for AHF.








Partnership in Leadership Award

This award recognizes an operator member's facility that demonstrate a strong commitment to self-operation and currently supports the foodservice director or foodservice administrative director.

Joe Archambeault

Vice President of Support Services, Centra Health
Joe works closely with his Director to ensure that Centra Health remains self-op. Frequent meetings with staff, reviewing their elements of success called the "Foundational 5", allows them to showcase all of the great work they're doing in the facility. Despite a full schedule, Joe never denies an opportunity to sit down and talk with his employees.

Future Horizon Award

This award recognizes operator members who are new to management (less than 5 years) and demonstrate a desire for future growth through contributions to their hospitals or community.

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Foodservice Manager, Geisinger Shamokin Area Community Hospital
Brian began his career with Geisinger as a cook at the Geisinger Health System - Danville campus. For 10 years he trained in many different positions and functions. While working, he simultaneously obtained his MBA from Bloomsburg University, which led him to his current position of Foodservice Manager in May 2016.









Spotlight Award

This award recognizes operator members who have enhanced operations through new ideas and industry trends. This may include any of the following: technology, program development, implementation, innovation, sustainability, community impact, mergers/acquisitions, and /or creative use of managing finances.

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Senior Director of Hospitality Support Services, Spectrum Health - Butterworth Medical Center
Kevin and his team recently revealed a new mission and roadmap for health, anchored with their vision of personalized health made simple, affordable, and exceptional; they've shifted from traditional "sick care" to a focus on whole person health.














Exemplary Leadership Award

This award will be bestowed upon the operator member who best reflects the commitment to operational excellence that Don Marsh brought to healthcare foodservice. Don Marsh, former president of the American Society for Healthcare Food Service Administrators (ASHFSA), was dedicated to the healthcare profession and to his colleagues. He was a longtime supporter of programs to raise professionalism of operators in the healthcare foodservice industry and was known to contribute generously. The award will recognize member contributions in their operations as well as to regional, local chapters or networking meetings.

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Executive Director of Food & Nutrition Services, JPS Health Network
While working at JPS Health Network, patient satisfaction scores have improved 10% since the start of the new hospitality menu program two years ago. He has led his team to achieve great results on all regulatory inspections, averaging 98% on local health department inspections in 2019. Neal is always professional, kind-hearted, and cares about what he does in every project or endeavor he takes on. Neal does not manage from an office, conducting daily rounds while removing obstacles and making his team's job easier.






Chapter of the Year Award

This award recognizes an AHF Local Chapter that promotes the overall Association's mission.

Philadelphia-South Jersey Chapter
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In the last two years, this Chapter has grown their membership by 20%, most significantly by tying their annual Symposium to membership. Their social media presence has been revised and given a boost in their visibility. Since chapter inception, they've awarded $50,000 in student scholarships.








Sustainability

This award recognizes operator members who implemented or continuously improved and expanded foodservice waste reduction programs on the path to sustainability.  Areas include food waste reduction, waste storing programs, composting, recycling, water conservation, improving use of reusable, and food donation programs.

Rochelle DrexlerRochelle_Award.jpg

Director - Nutrition and Food Services, Aspirus Wausau Hospital
In the Fall of 2019 Rochelle and her team set out on the simple and easy to measure goal of eliminating Styrofoam in the cafeteria. A mere five months later they had exceeded their goal, successfully eliminating Styrofoam cups from patients' bedsides. Since then they've increased their sustainability efforts, expanding their herb garden in the cafeteria courtyard, replaced plastic straws with paper ones, emphasized local purchasing, replaced all disposables and to-go containers with sustainable and recyclable options.

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