LMHS President & CEO Rob Montagnese presented the President’s Award to Brian Merritt, Director of Food Service. The President’s Award is reserved for individuals or groups that have demonstrated a high level of commitment to LMHS and the community, and is not given every year.
Rob said, “Brian oversees all aspects of the Food Service Department to provide restaurant-quality cuisine to patients, visitors and staff on a daily basis. In addition, he oversees approximately 300 special lunches and dozens of dinners each year. Thousands of community members have dined on Brian’s culinary creations, ranging from the ‘gourmet dinner for two’ that is specially prepared for new parents on the maternity floor at the Hospital to the Licking County Chamber of Commerce’s Groundhog Breakfast. Brian’s reinvention of ‘hospital food’ has had a big impact on the community’s perception of the Health Systems’ renewed commitment to quality.”
Brian and his wife, Dawn, reside in Newark with their two children, Sophia and Sam. Brian graduated from Granville High School and Johnson and Wales Culinary School in Charleston, South Carolina. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management at The Ohio State University.