Hospitals Partnering with Farms – A Healthier Approach to Hospital Food
Changing the Landscape of Hospital Food
Hospital food has long been synonymous with bland, pre-packaged meals that leave much to be desired in terms of taste and nutrition. However, an increasing number of American hospitals are revolutionizing the way they approach food service by partnering with local farms to provide healthier and tastier options for their patients.
The Impact on Patient Care
According to Santana Díaz, executive chef of food and nutrition services at UC Davis Medical Center, “Good food is good medicine.” This sentiment underscores the pivotal role that nutrition plays in the overall health and well-being of patients. As hospitals prioritize the provision of healthy meals, it not only benefits patients’ physical health but also contributes to their overall satisfaction and comfort during their stay.
Supporting Local Producers
Beyond the direct benefit to patients, these partnerships also provide crucial support to local farmers. By establishing long-term relationships with farmers and offering assurances of consistent demand, hospitals help mitigate the financial risks associated with farming. This not only fosters a sustainable, thriving agricultural community but also ensures a fresh and diverse supply of produce for hospital kitchens.
Expanding the Reach of Farm-to-Hospital Initiatives
Several hospitals have gone a step further and integrated farm initiatives directly into their facilities. Lankenau Medical Center, for example, boasts a 2-acre farm on its campus, providing an educational platform for patients and community members alike to learn about fresh, whole foods and their impact on health. Such initiatives extend the impact of these partnerships beyond the hospital walls and into the surrounding communities.
Unique Insights and Perspectives
As these farm-to-hospital initiatives continue to gain momentum, the benefits extend far beyond the confines of the hospital kitchen. Patients are afforded the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the origins of their food, fostering a deeper connection to their meals and inspiring potential lifestyle changes beyond their hospitalization.
Infusing Quality into Hospital Food Supply Chains
One noteworthy aspect of these partnerships is the guarantee of high-quality, fresh ingredients for hospital kitchens. This not only enhances the nutritional value of patient meals but also promotes a sense of trust and confidence in the food supply chain. This level of transparency and accountability has the potential to set new standards for the broader food industry.
Meeting Dietary Needs and Preferences
By engaging with local farms, hospitals can readily accommodate dietary restrictions and preferences with a diverse array of fresh, seasonal produce. This flexibility in menu planning not only enhances patient satisfaction but also reinforces the notion that nutritious food can also be enjoyable and flavorful.
Summing It Up
In conclusion, the shift towards farm-to-hospital partnerships represents a significant milestone in transforming the landscape of hospital food. By prioritizing the delivery of fresh, locally-sourced ingredients, hospitals are not only enhancing the quality of patient meals but also fostering a community-centric approach to healthcare that emphasizes holistic well-being.
Hospital food is not known for tasting good or being that good for your health. But some American hospitals are partnering with farms to change that.
You probably think that hospital food is pre-made, packaged, tasteless and colorless, except for the gelatin, of course. Maybe you've brought a friend or family member soup or a sandwich to their hospital room because the place you most expect a healthy meal is one of the places you're least likely to get it.
So you might be surprised to know that some hospitals are partnering with local farms to offer healthier, tastier foods. Some even have their own farm on campus.
“Good food is good medicine,” says Santana Díaz, executive chef of food and nutrition services at UC Davis Medical Center in Davis, California, and the first person born in the United States in her family from generations of Mexican farmers.
“Patients are at the center of everything we do,” says Díaz. “I know I'm not a bedside doctor or nurse, but I want to provide everyone in our care with the healthiest options possible.”
Díaz and others are showing that it is possible to offer healthy meals to patients and help local producers at the same time.
Díaz and his team serve meals to 1,530 patients a day and more than 4,000 meals in commercial spaces.
Díaz puts his “boots on the ground at every farm we buy from to make sure it's a real place,” then uses a local distributor for pickup and delivery.
“We receive two pallets of products every day. That is equivalent to about 2,000 pounds or 1 ton,” says Díaz. “When we say we consume a ton of product a day, we literally mean a ton of product a day.”
This translates to local tomatoes in salads, local peaches for dessert, and black beans that become a fiber-filled side for tacos on Tuesday, and a black bean vinaigrette that keeps sugar levels low in salad dressing but the high flavor profile.
It's also good for farmers. With a large-scale operation, Díaz can forecast with farmers what their yields and needs will be for the year or even years to come.
“Farmers and ranchers who do not have a buyer behind them assume all the risk,” says Díaz. “Let's say a farmer plants asparagus. It's not something that just happens in a few months. When ready, asparagus is labor-intensive: you have to cut it by hand. So farmers have to compete with other markets. When the harvest comes, it may be worth less than it took to produce it due to the price of raw materials. Then maybe they won't plant asparagus again next year.”
“When we can tell a local grower, 'This is what we need for asparagus next year,' we eliminate risk for the farmer because now he knows he has a buyer and he knows how much he's going to produce per acre,” Diaz says. “And we have preserved that crop in the region.”
More than half of the products John Muir Medical Centers serves to patients and visitors (60%) come from California. And 50% of that amount comes from farms within a 150-mile radius.
This is made possible through their partnership with Bay Cities Produce Co. While Joe LaVilla, John Muir Nutrition Services Culinary Operations Manager, focuses on the meals, Bay Cities vets and works with local farms to make sure the necessary side but less sexy of Food procurement (federally regulated standards such as food safety, fair trade and field, soil and water testing) is up to date.
“Hospitals don't want people to get sick,” says Steve del Masso, president of Bay Cities Produce Co. “John Muir has a desire to do right by small farms and is dedicated to keeping them running locally.” At the same time, there are concerns about food safety. “I think we are a good intermediary.”
For patients, this means that the vegetables or carrots sautéed in carrot-ginger soup come fresh from farms, not taken out of freezer bags.
“Our overnight oats for breakfast include local blood oranges. We serve local squash, seasonal Brentwood corn, and up to four specialty salads a day, all based on what's fresh and local,” says DaVilla. “Our best-seller is a steak salad with arugula, escarole, peppers, frisee and shaved onion.”
Built on a former golf course, Lankenau Medical Center's 98-acre campus includes a 2-acre farm directly across from the emergency room.
Since 2016, Deaver Wellness Farm has produced more than 13,000 pounds of onions, greens, tomatoes, melons, beans and peas.
“Anything you can grow, we grow,” says Phil Robinson, president of Lankenau Medical Center.
Education is a big part of programming. Schoolchildren visit the farm to learn about foods that don't come out of a wrapper or bag. Food insecure patients (those who do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables) talk to a dietitian about products and recipes. They then receive fresh fruits and vegetables in their homes.
“If you just fix them and put them back where they came from, you're not doing much good,” Robinson says. “If we really want to make a difference and improve the health status of our patients, it has to be outside the four walls of this hospital.”
The more than 3,000 pounds of produce harvested at The Sky Farm at Eskenazi Health each year is included in free food and nutrition classes. This helps patients at all Eskenazi locations, especially those with diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses, learn how to manage and even reverse their conditions.
Class topics include “Lifestyle Medicine,” “Growing Strong: Cooking Matters,” “Fresh Veggie Fridays,” and “What Can I Eat?”
Pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, radishes and herbs are just a few of the crops grown each year on Boston Medical Center's rooftop farm.
More than 5,000 pounds of food from the farm is used in hospital cafeterias, patient meals, demonstration kitchens and the center's preventive food pantry, which supplies nutritious food to those who cannot afford it.
The microfarm on the third-floor deck of the Health Sciences Center at Stony Brook Medicine has more than 2,000 square feet of gardening space that produces fresh fruits and vegetables used in patients' meals.
Their “farm-to-bed” concept often includes a card on the tray to inform patients that some of their food was harvested on the farm.
Through a partnership with the Rodale Institute, St. Luke's University Health Network has the St. Luke's-Rodale Institute Organic Farm, 8 acres of crops that supply the 12 hospitals in its network with 100 varieties of certified organic and food-free products. chemicals.
Everything from salad greens, broccoli and peppers to chard, garlic, beets and herbs are incorporated into the meals of patients, visitors and staff, and are available for purchase at several hospitals' farmers markets.
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Hospital food is not known for tasting good or being that good for your health. But some American hospitals are partnering with farms to change that.
You probably think that hospital food is pre-made, packaged, tasteless and colorless, except for the gelatin, of course. Maybe you've brought a friend or family member soup or a sandwich to their hospital room because the place you most expect a healthy meal is one of the places you're least likely to get it.
So you might be surprised to know that some hospitals are partnering with local farms to offer healthier, tastier foods. Some even have their own farm on campus.
“Good food is good medicine,” says Santana Díaz, executive chef of food and nutrition services at UC Davis Medical Center in Davis, California, and the first person born in the United States in her family from generations of Mexican farmers.
“Patients are at the center of everything we do,” says Díaz. “I know I'm not a bedside doctor or nurse, but I want to provide everyone in our care with the healthiest options possible.”
Díaz and others are showing that it is possible to offer healthy meals to patients and help local producers at the same time.
Díaz and his team serve meals to 1,530 patients a day and more than 4,000 meals in commercial spaces.
Díaz puts his “boots on the ground at every farm we buy from to make sure it's a real place,” then uses a local distributor for pickup and delivery.
“We receive two pallets of products every day. That is equivalent to about 2,000 pounds or 1 ton,” says Díaz. “When we say we consume a ton of product a day, we literally mean a ton of product a day.”
This translates to local tomatoes in salads, local peaches for dessert, and black beans that become a fiber-filled side for tacos on Tuesday, and a black bean vinaigrette that keeps sugar levels low in salad dressing but the high flavor profile.
It's also good for farmers. With a large-scale operation, Díaz can forecast with farmers what their yields and needs will be for the year or even years to come.
“Farmers and ranchers who do not have a buyer behind them assume all the risk,” says Díaz. “Let's say a farmer plants asparagus. It's not something that just happens in a few months. When ready, asparagus is labor-intensive: you have to cut it by hand. So farmers have to compete with other markets. When the harvest comes, it may be worth less than it took to produce it due to the price of raw materials. Then maybe they won't plant asparagus again next year.”
“When we can tell a local grower, 'This is what we need for asparagus next year,' we eliminate risk for the farmer because now he knows he has a buyer and he knows how much he's going to produce per acre,” Diaz says. “And we have preserved that crop in the region.”
More than half of the products John Muir Medical Centers serves to patients and visitors (60%) come from California. And 50% of that amount comes from farms within a 150-mile radius.
This is made possible through their partnership with Bay Cities Produce Co. While Joe LaVilla, John Muir Nutrition Services Culinary Operations Manager, focuses on the meals, Bay Cities vets and works with local farms to make sure the necessary side but less sexy of Food procurement (federally regulated standards such as food safety, fair trade and field, soil and water testing) is up to date.
“Hospitals don't want people to get sick,” says Steve del Masso, president of Bay Cities Produce Co. “John Muir has a desire to do right by small farms and is dedicated to keeping them running locally.” At the same time, there are concerns about food safety. “I think we are a good intermediary.”
For patients, this means that the vegetables or carrots sautéed in carrot-ginger soup come fresh from farms, not taken out of freezer bags.
“Our overnight oats for breakfast include local blood oranges. We serve local squash, seasonal Brentwood corn, and up to four specialty salads a day, all based on what's fresh and local,” says DaVilla. “Our best-seller is a steak salad with arugula, escarole, peppers, frisee and shaved onion.”
Built on a former golf course, Lankenau Medical Center's 98-acre campus includes a 2-acre farm directly across from the emergency room.
Since 2016, Deaver Wellness Farm has produced more than 13,000 pounds of onions, greens, tomatoes, melons, beans and peas.
“Anything you can grow, we grow,” says Phil Robinson, president of Lankenau Medical Center.
Education is a big part of programming. Schoolchildren visit the farm to learn about foods that don't come out of a wrapper or bag. Food insecure patients (those who do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables) talk to a dietitian about products and recipes. They then receive fresh fruits and vegetables in their homes.
“If you just fix them and put them back where they came from, you're not doing much good,” Robinson says. “If we really want to make a difference and improve the health status of our patients, it has to be outside the four walls of this hospital.”
The more than 3,000 pounds of produce harvested at The Sky Farm at Eskenazi Health each year is included in free food and nutrition classes. This helps patients at all Eskenazi locations, especially those with diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses, learn how to manage and even reverse their conditions.
Class topics include “Lifestyle Medicine,” “Growing Strong: Cooking Matters,” “Fresh Veggie Fridays,” and “What Can I Eat?”
Pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, radishes and herbs are just a few of the crops grown each year on Boston Medical Center's rooftop farm.
More than 5,000 pounds of food from the farm is used in hospital cafeterias, patient meals, demonstration kitchens and the center's preventive food pantry, which supplies nutritious food to those who cannot afford it.
The microfarm on the third-floor deck of the Health Sciences Center at Stony Brook Medicine has more than 2,000 square feet of gardening space that produces fresh fruits and vegetables used in patients' meals.
Their “farm-to-bed” concept often includes a card on the tray to inform patients that some of their food was harvested on the farm.
Through a partnership with the Rodale Institute, St. Luke's University Health Network has the St. Luke's-Rodale Institute Organic Farm, 8 acres of crops that supply the 12 hospitals in its network with 100 varieties of certified organic and food-free products. chemicals.
Everything from salad greens, broccoli and peppers to chard, garlic, beets and herbs are incorporated into the meals of patients, visitors and staff, and are available for purchase at several hospitals' farmers markets.
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