The Weekly Pick – Healthy Food at the Hospital!

It’s amazing how long this has taken to catch on… good food choices to promote health and healing at the hospital. In this article from Green Bay Press-Gazette.com, Aurora BayCare Medical Center is looking to serve healthy food to their patients, visitors and hospital staff and also to address sustainable food issues, hoping to “help save the planet along the way.”

They, along with 128 other facilities, have signed a Healthy Food in Health Care pledge from Health Care Without Harm. They are starting to think about rBGH free dairy, trans-fat free items, recycling, purchasing local food, and an overall healthier approach to feeding people. It sounds like they are doing a great job with the overwhelming task of restructuring our hospitals to be a model of healthy eating.

The Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge

We pledge to:

Work with local farmers, community-based organizations and food suppliers to increase the availability of locally-sourced food.

Encourage our vendors and/or food management companies to supply us with food that is, among other attributes, produced without synthetic pesticides and hormones or antibiotics given to animals in the absence of diagnosed disease and which supports farmer health and welfare, and ecologically protective and restorative agriculture.

Implement a stepwise program to identify and adopt sustainable food procurement. Begin where fewer barriers exist and immediate steps can be taken. For example, the adoption of rBGH free milk, fair trade coffee, or introduction of organic fresh fruit in the cafeteria.

Communicate to our Group Purchasing Organizations our interest in foods that are identified as local and certified.

Educate and communicate within on our system and to our patients and community about our nutritious, socially just and ecological sustainable food healthy food practices and procedures.

Minimize or beneficially reuse food waste and support the use of food packaging and products which are ecologically protective.

Develop a program to promote and source from producers and processors which uphold the dignity of family, farmers, workers and their communities and support sustainable and humane agriculture systems.

Report annually on implementation of this Pledge.

Read even more on their site.