The Helper’s Table VC

444. You have too little care and feel too lightly the burden of providing an orderly, ample repast for your workers. They are the ones who need an abundance of fresh wholesome provision. They are constantly taxed; their vitality must be preserved. Their principles should be educated. They, of all in the sanitarium, should be abundantly furnished with the best and most wholesome, strength-giving food. The table of your helpers should be furnished, not with meat, but with an abundant supply of good fruit, grains, and vegetables, prepared in a nice, wholesome way. Your neglect to do this has increased your income at altogether too great an expense to the strength and souls of your workers. This has not pleased the Lord. The influence of the entire fare does not recommend your principles to those that sit at the helpers’ table.—Letter 54, 1896 (CD 297.1) MC VC

The Cook, a Medical Missionary VC

445. Obtain the best help in the cooking that you can. If food is prepared in such a way that it is a tax on the digestive organs, be sure that investigation is needed. Food can be prepared in such a way as to be both wholesome and palatable.Letter 100, 1903 (CD 297.3) MC VC

446. The cook in a sanitarium should be a thorough health reformer. A man is not converted unless his appetite and diet correspond with his profession of faith. (CD 297.4) MC VC

The cook in a sanitarium should be a well-trained medical missionary. He should be a capable person, able to experiment for himself. He should not confine himself to recipes. The Lord loves us, and He does not want us to do ourselves harm by following unhealthful recipes. (CD 297.5) MC VC

At every sanitarium there will be some who will complain about the food, saying that it does not suit them. They need to be educated in regard to the evils of unhealthful diet. How can the brain be clear while the stomach is suffering?—Manuscript 93, 1901 (CD 297.6) MC VC

447. There should be in our sanitarium a cook who thoroughly understands the work, one who has good judgment, who can experiment, who will not introduce into the food those things which should be avoided.—Letter 37, 1901 (CD 298.1) MC VC

448. Have you a cook who can prepare dishes that the patients cannot help but see are an improvement on the diet to which they have been accustomed? The one who does the cooking in a sanitarium should be able to make wholesome, appetizing food combinations, and these food combinations must necessarily be somewhat richer than you or I would eat.—Letter 331, 1904 (CD 298.2) MC VC

449. The one who holds the position as cook has a most responsible place. He should be trained in habits of economy and should realize that no food is to be wasted. Christ said, “Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost.” John 6:12. Let those who are engaged in any department, heed this instruction. Economy is to be learned by the educators and taught to the helpers not only by precept, but by example.—Manuscript 88, 1901 (CD 298.3) MC VC