Hospital Food May Soon Be Healthy Food

I couldn’t help but feel a sense of hope when I read the news that one hospital is making a change for the better.

You may already know that I have had my share of hospital stays in the past and have no trouble speaking my mind about the quality (or lack there) of the food served to patients.

A quick search of ‘hospital food’ on Google will produce some less than appetizing visuals of the kinds of meals you may expect to eat while recovering from surgery.

The good news is that one hospital is working to make a drastic change to these poor quality meals.

St. Luke’s University Health Network in Easton, PA has teamed up with a non profit to revamp the traditional menu served to its patients.

The Rodale Institute is dedicated to pioneering organic farming through research and outreach programs. With over 60 years of farming expertise under their belt, the good folks at Rodale are a major player in studying the effects of conventional chemical agriculture to the organic methods.

St. Luke’s joined forces with the Rodale Institute over two years ago to found an organic produce farm for the sole purpose of feeding the hospital network.

A real good news story if I’ve ever read one.

It is only this season they have been able to reap the benefits, which they project to exceed their initial estimation of 44,000 pounds of fresh, organic produce.

So where did they find all this excess land?

As part of a long term expansion strategy, the health network acquired an extra 500 acres of land on which the St. Luke’s Anderson Campus resides. Because the Anderson campus only currently occupies 40 of those 500 acres, it served as a great space to implement the new farming plan.

Partial credit must go to Edward Nawrocki, the Anderson Campus President, as he was eager to make use of the excess land and when employees suggested an organic farm, he fought to make it happen.

What kind of foods are they harvesting?

Over 12 kinds of vegetables and fruits from kale to beets are being picked from the hospitals backyard. Not only are they making great use of this mass plot of land, the close proximity guarantees the food on a patients plate is fresh.

Produce is often picked in the morning, transported, prepared and served all in the same day.

You’d be lucky to get that kind of quality in a five star hotel!

What is the catch? According to Nawrocki and a farmer from the Rodale Institute, the existing hospital system food supplier does not make it easy.

Sodexo, the company which offers “quality of life” food in health care institutions, is slow to incorporate the fresh foods into their menu options.

Yet despite these challenges, the program is charging ahead full steam. This certainly supports movement towards a future where packaged and frozen dinner trays are no longer hospital vocabulary.

Sources:

http://anderson.slhn.org/About/Organic-Farm