The Association for Healthcare Foodservice has elected four members to its board of directors. President-elect is Beth Yesford, MS, FACHE, FMP, sr. dir.-food and nutrition/environmental services at Laundry Providence Hospital, Washington, D.C. Treasurer-elect is Randy Sparrow, dir.-food, nutrition and environmental services at Indiana University Health Bloomington, Bloomington, Ind.Two new directors join them on the 2012…

Domino’s Pizza has been spreading its dough in some European markets the past few months, including its debut stores in Russia, Bulgaria and Romania. Now it has opened its first store in Poland, in Warsaw’s bustling Mokotow district. DP Polska SA is the master franchisee for Poland, and is wholly owned by DP Poland Plc.…

The natural ventilation afforded by a fresh breeze isn’t enough to protect a restaurant’s outdoor patrons from secondhand smoke in Los Angeles, according to city officials there. Last week, the city enacted an ordinance that makes it illegal to light up in outdoor dining areas. The prohibition makes Los Angeles the nation’s biggest city with…

Just how close can a drive-through unit be to a residence? A legislative battle won last fall in Toronto to restrict that distance is now being challenged by some of the world’s largest fast-food chains. According to the Toronto Metro, A&W Restaurants,  McDonald’s Corp., Wendy’s/Arby’s Group and Canada’s own Tim Hortons are working with the…

A stricter interpretation of county restaurant regulations has pressured two cooking schools in Chapel Hill. N.C., to ensure their kitchen equipment meets the same standards as restaurants. According to local media, both A Southern Season and C’est Si Bon have had to change their food preparation routine as well. The general manager at A Southern…

Evanston, Ill., FER’s hometown, is a tad green around the gills from overemphasizing its “green ordinance” over its need to bring in some green for its tax base. Until recently, the city boasted a green building ordinance with a 10,000-sq.ft threshold for mandatory LEED certification. But the demands and strictures of the ordinance appeared to…

Amid allegations of substandard patient care at the island’s only public hospital, Guam’s governor has signed into law a bill aimed at tackling at least one of the hospital’s problems—the lack of accessible foodservice for visitors and staff. The new law, No. 31-02, allows the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority to solicit and contract for the…

As we reported last issue, observers of the foodservice market are worried about the impact rising gasoline prices may have on the recovery of the foodservice market. While oil-price pressures have eased a bit during the past two weeks, gasoline prices continued to rise. The national average price moved almost 14 cents higher—to $3.52—for the…

Oil and its refined products are not the only commodities experiencing upward pressure on prices. Prices for stainless and carbon steels are also increasing, in the case of carbon steels, quite dramatically. The MEPS Int’l. North America All Products Composite Price Index for carbon steels jumped 33.7% from November 2010 to February this year. That’s…

We’ve said again and again that the recession in foodservice has been unprecedented in our lifetimes. It’s within that context that a milestone was achieved in the fourth quarter 2010: Overall foodservice traffic was flat, according to the NPD Group. It was the first quarter in two years in which traffic had not declined. In…