St. Rose-San Martin hospital revives 50-plus-year-old bread recipe to bring goodwill to patients

When you walk through the lobby of the St. Rose Dominican Hospital-San Martin Campus in southwest Las Vegas on a Tuesday or Thursday, the smell will be unmistakable — in a good way.

In a prominent area of the hospital’s lobby that used to be a Starbucks, nutrition services whips up freshly baked bread.

“People follow the smell,” said Sister Mary Kieffer, vice president for mission integration at St. Rose Dominican.

When the lab tests have finished and doctors have gone home for the day, the afternoon hours can sometimes drag for patients. Hospital staff members pass out slices of the bread with fixings to the patients who are not on restricted diets.

Kieffer said that something as simple as a fresh slice can break up the monotony of the day and give patients something to look forward to.

“They like that someone is paying attention to them,” she said.

Kieffer said the bread is part of Dignity Health’s Hello Humankindness campaign. Dignity Health owns and operates the hospital. The bread — known as “Angel Bread” — also is sold on the hospital’s campus at 8280 W. Warm Springs Road for $6 per loaf.

The story of the bread is rooted in the 1950s, when Sister Angelita, a cook at the hospital’s Rose de Lima Campus in Henderson, baked a family recipe in the hospital’s kitchen.

Kieffer said a wealthy patient smelled the bread and requested a slice. It was the only food he was able to keep down.

When he left the hospital, he helped organize a bakery so Sister Angelita could sell the bread commercially.

Some years later, the bread mysteriously ended production.

“That part of the story is kind of lost in history,” Kieffer said.

More recently, Larry Barnard, CEO of the San Martin Campus, suggested that the hospital begin baking the bread again, but nobody knew the recipe. But as a vault was being cleaned out, the recipe surfaced.

Ryan Christensen, the hospital’s assistant administrator, said the bread is noticeably hefty and unmistakably homemade.

“It seems like you could survive off it for a month if you were in the wilderness,” he said.

The hospital has been baking about eight loaves twice a week since February. Only five of those are sold to the public. But the continuation of production symbolizes something bigger than a marketing campaign for the health group.

“It’s keeping alive our legacy,” Kieffer said.

Visit dignityhealth.org.

Contact View intern reporter Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Find him on Twitter: @BlakeApgarLV.