If you ’ve ever stay at a hospital , chance are you were n’t wholly satisfied with the solid food you were given . Perhaps you went so far as have a booster or proportional pick you up something from a nearby restaurant and bring it to you . Hospitals are cognizant of the food ailment and some are looking to modify it .
St. Luke ’s in Bethlehem , Pa. , is one such hospital . They start up direct newfangled mother home with baskets full of recipes , information on good for you feeding and fresh garden truck , Civil Eatsreports . They ’ve also incorporate 44,000 pound of overbold produce into meal for patients , their cafeteria menu and hebdomadal Fannie Farmer market place booths . The produce was not purchased at a grocery stock , but rather , it came from the infirmary ’s 10 - Akka constituent farm that sits on the priming of St. Luke ’s Anderson campus . They ’ve been running the farm since last year . To get started , they partnered with the Rodale Institute , which helped implement the agricultural side of things . The infirmary spend an initial $ 125,000 to start the farm and says it costs more to originate the solid food than it does to buy it , but it ’s deserving it for a goodly dieting , Civil Eatsreports .
“ Our mission is to provide peachy health care and part of that is educating patient about the benefit of a plant - based , organic diet , ” Anderson campus prexy Ed Nawrocki told Civil Eats . “ One of the good ways to do that is to lead by example and show them how delicious give rise grown on our farm tastes . ”
St. Luke ’s is n’t the only hospital apply farm . The University of Wisconsin Hospital buys its green groceries from local farm . Stony Brook University Hospital on Long Island and Watertown Regional Medical Center in Wisconsin have started farms on their own campuses . Both of these infirmary are replacing package garden truck with the green groceries from their farm for patient meals . St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor Hospital in Ypsilanti , Michigan has a 25 - acre onsite farm that start up as a 10 - acre farm in 2010 . The farm includes four beehives and three hoop houses and develop strawberries , basil , refreshing Spinacia oleracea , collard greens and ail that is used for patient and faculty repast as well as healthy run through education .
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“ Hippocrates talked about food for thought as medicament and we believe that to be true , ” Rodale Institute executive manager Mark Smallwood told Civil Eats . “ There is a paradigm shift occurrent and hospital are realize the value of bring forth brisk , local , constituent food to help to their patient . ”
What do you imagine of this young drift in hospital food ? Do you think every hospital should provide fresh solid food from their own farm ?
