BIDDEFORD — Maine-based integrated health care system MaineHealth has been recognized by the Partnership for a Healthier America for its commitment and success in improving food and nutrition options to its patients and staff.

The organization was awarded the national Healthier Future Award for making food offered in 10 of its affiliated health centers across the state healthier for patients, staff and visitors, the system announced Thursday.

The Southern Maine Health Care facilities in Biddeford and Sanford are among those 10 facilities.

Director of Hospitality Services for SMHC in Biddeford, Michael Sabo, said Monday he is proud of the work his and other cafeterias in the MaineHealth system have accomplished as they move toward healthier dining options.

“As a chef, my role is to put good food out here, and ‘good’ meaning it’s not just tasty and satisfying, but healthy is well,” Sabo said.

The PHA was founded in 2010 as an independent branch of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! healthy-eating initiative, and is devoted to working with the private sector to tackle childhood obesity.

Nearly 10 percent of all hospitals in the nation have joined the PHA’s Hospital Healthier Food Initiative, which seeks to improve the healthiness of foods served in hospitals across the country. MaineHealth was one of the first organizations to join the initiative when it was first launched in October 2012.

As part of the HHFI, in Biddeford, Sabo said the cafeteria has gotten rid of its deep-frying machines and reduced options for sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda, and has created “Healthy Checkout” registers, in which foods deemed unhealthy by hospital staff are not displayed within five feet of the registers.

“Because our identity is that we’re centers of community health, we needed to model healthy behaviors and we needed to set an example,” Sabo said.

Sabo said MaineHealth has been a leader in encouraging corporations to improve the nutritional value of their products, urging food companies to reduce sodium in their foods. Initiatives like that, Sabo said, reflect MaineHealth’s longer history of offering healthful options to its hospitals’ diners.

About 10 years ago, he said, a task force of MaineHealth food service directors was formed, Sabo said. The group made a pledge to make improvements to the nutritional quality of each hospital’s food, such as reducing sodium, calories from fat and portion sizes.

Sabo said recognition by the PHA affirms that the hospital and its parent organization are making strides to improve people’s overall health.

“It’s just another step in our journey here. By no means are we finished,” he said. “Obesity still continues to be a real problem in this country and all the medical health issues that go along with it. We have to continue to educate and model those (healthy) behaviors.”

More than one-third of adults in the U.S, 36.5 percent, are considered obese, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which manages the obesity watchdog State of Obesity, reports that 30 percent of Mainers are obese.

Sabo said hospitals and other institutions have a responsibility of promoting what they deem to be healthy eating, saying it would be “hypocritical” of the hospital to promote foods that lead to diet-related health issues.

“Clearly it’s our responsibility,” Sabo said. “We’re centers of community health. Our MaineHealth decision is working together to ensure our communities are the healthiest in America.”

— Staff Writer Alan Bennett can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or abennett@journaltribune.com.