Catalina Island Medical Center, taking care of patients involves much more than passing out medications and medical advice. For patients who are at the facility for more than a few hours, three healthy meals a day are part of the doctor's orders.

Making sure those meals are served is the job of Dietary Manager Carol Firebrace Dumont, who oversees all aspects of CIMC's kitchen. Her responsibilities include scheduling meetings with the dietician, ordering food, checking menus and monitoring patient diets. She is also responsible for scheduling the rest of the kitchen staff, Ignacia Lourdes Peres, Olvidia Chavolla and Alicia Tomayo.

Providing meals at CIMC is a cooperative effort between the on-site staff Nutrition Ink and Nutrition Ink, the company contracted to provide registered dietician services for the facility. Nutrition Ink develops weekly menus which are then executed by the CIMC staff. The menus are designed to provide balanced meals as well as give patients nutritional variety.

Breakfast at CIMC may include hot cereal, juice, an omelet, and a muffin. Lunch features entrees such as baked chicken, Baja fish or pork chops, as well as noodles or rice, vegetables and dessert. Dinner fare may include spaghetti, soup and a sandwich or macaroni and cheese along with vegetables and dessert. When Dumont is on the job, what's on the menu may not be what's served. "I ask each resident what they would like for their meals," she said. "It makes me happy to see that they are happy."

She also makes sure that any special dietary restrictions are complied with. Those may include low-sodium, low-sugar or low-cholesterol diets, depending on the medical needs of individual patients.

Dumont's dietary responsibilities extend much further than 21 meals a week for the hospital's patients. CIMC's kitchen also creates meals for the trustees assigned to the Avalon Sheriff's Station as well as for interested CIMC staff. Employees sign up for meals at the beginning of the day and can then enjoy on-site meals at a nominal cost.

Catalina Island Medical Center's kitchen manager has been on the job for the last three months. Originally from Montclair, New Jersey, she attended Long Beach City College where she received a Dietetic Supervisor certificate. She and her husband moved to the island so she could accept the position. "I love it here," she said.

Dumont also loves her job. "You need to be a special person to be in this kind of work," she said. "If you don't like what you're doing you shouldn't be doing it." She likes what she's doing so much that she plans to take the next step and go back to school to become a registered dietician.

Until then, she and her staff will continue to provide an extra helping of caring alongside CIMC's patients' meals.