Healthy Foods

The Local Authorities

July | August 2008

By Diane Laux, ABC

At a recent environmental health conference in Pittsburgh, the hotel tried to emulate the green consciousness of its guests with a discreet sign near the coffee service promoting “Free Range” coffee. Of course they meant Fair Trade coffee, but the point is they were making an effort toward providing sustainably produced goods. As are a growing number of the nation’s hospitals to improve the health of their patients, employees and guests, and support the communities they serve.

According to “Healthy Food in Health Care,” a just released report from Health Care Without Harm, hospitals are investing in preventive medicine in the form of locally sourced, nutritional and sustainable food. The report outlined the food purchasing trends in 127 U.S. hospitals. Findings included the following:

• 70 percent of the facilities purchase up to 40 percent of their produce locally

• 100 percent have increased fresh fruit and vegetable offerings

• 25 percent run a campus farmers market or farm stand

• 25 percent host a community supported agriculture (CSA) site

• 53 percent are introducing either a farmers market or CSA program

None of this is news to Lee Ann Tomscyk. Sourcing food grown or produced locally is somewhat of a passion for Tomscyk, Manager of Hospitality Services at St. Luke’s Hospital, Duluth, Min. She and her husband are avid gardeners, and they are raising their children to know where the food on their table comes from. She carries that zeal to work each day.

“We developed a new management team at St. Luke’s and found we were like minded in wanting to support small businesses and local producers,” said Tomscyk. “The community supports us as a hospital, so why not support them?”

Several years ago, the team introduced a twist on their employee holiday tea by relying entirely on local businesses for food for the party, a kind of gifting to the community.

“Jamie Harvie, the Executive Director of the Institute for Sustainable Future, noticed what we were doing and approached us to develop a larger healthy food program at St. Luke’s,” said Tomscyk. “Everyone was on board – my management team, the administrative team – nobody said ‘no,’ so away we went.”

Tomscyk is quick to note the hospital took “baby steps” with the program. Not everything in the kitchen is organic or local, but they try things to see what works for patients, staff, visitors, and the bottom line. They consider their choices, and if not a fit, they go in a different direction.

The cafeteria started with organic spring salad mix and things expanded from there. A kitchen employee’s neighbor is a bison farmer. An introduction followed and now once a week they have bison burgers in the café. Interest grows from word of mouth.

“We’re educating the community and use the hospital as a resource and a proving ground,” Tomscyk said.

The St. Luke’s team works with a local farmer who grows vegetables for the hospital, putting a game plan together each spring.

“When we pick up the weekly order, she tells us what will be ripe the following week, and we deduct that from our standard order with our national distributor,” said Tomscyk. “For us, the raw food cost turns out to be cheaper, we’re helping our neighbors, and we’ve cut the food miles this produce travels to 30 miles, rather than 300 or even 3,000.”

The next local product to hit St. Luke’s menu: fresh water herring and whitefish from nearby Lake Superior.

“When we first brought in local carrots, my chefs said they were the best carrots they ever had,” Tomscyk said. “This was four years ago and they still talk about that experience. And it was a carrot.

“I see a real turnaround in that people are paying attention to what they eat and where it comes from,” said Tomscyk. “I love spreading the word about this.”

Collaboration Coup

“Our CEO Joseph Frolkis, MD, heads a very progressive hospital,” said Marydale DeBor, Vice President, External Affairs at Connecticut’s New Milford Hospital. “Disease prevention and managing health risk are critical components in our approach to healthcare. The way our country eats is fundamentally hurting us all.

“We wanted to lead by example and define and promote a sustainable food system,” DeBor said. “And we knew we couldn’t wait for the insurance companies to pay for it. Dr. Frolkis said to go for it, and he, and we, haven’t looked back.”

In late 2006, DeBor, Diane D’Isadori, MD, along with Chef Anne Gallagher developed a broad-based community strategy and organized Plow to Plate™, a coalition of farmers, dieticians, physicians, and community leaders. They asked for support and they got it.

In its first year, Plow to Plate held learning events and hosted educational dinners in the community. Local farmers from the coalition brought their foods, chefs demonstrated cooking methods to preserve nutritional value, and physicians explained why nutrition matters and why taking supplements is not the same as getting the nutrient out of fresh broccoli.

DeBor said guests gained a greater appreciation of how food is produced, how it gets from the farm to the table and the health benefits of eating locally. The farmers had involvement in how their food is used creatively to nourish the community.

New Milford Hospital makes certain that its employees enjoy these healthful foods as well, by featuring the farmers’ products in its cafeteria, and this year introduced a CSA program. Thirty employees purchased shares in a local farm, and now will share in the harvest, each receiving a bag of fresh picked produce once a week through October.

Also this year, Plow to Plate established a 10-month program for middle and high school students that teaches the connection between local foods and health through field trips to farms and fishing docks, and then a turn in the kitchen to learn culinary skills.

The local farmers market was expanded under the Plow to Plate banner and a new program called FARM BUCKS™ launched in June 2008. Pediatrician and family practice doctors give this “currency” to their patients along with information on healthy eating. The FARM BUCKS can be spent at the farmers market.

“We can do so much because we have this coalition,” said DeBor. “It all began by getting the hospital’s senior management on board. We started a drumbeat in the community and things grew from there.”

She stressed that it is important to the mission of Plow to Plate to sponsor and mentor other hospitals and communities who are interested in modeling the program. They have partnered with Health Care Without Harm to disseminate the program. Visit www.plowtoplate.org for more information. 

“This is a true public health program, built with loving kindness,” said DeBor. “I am most grateful that such a little program could set such a big example.”

Fans of Farmers

As part of their mission and holistic approach to healthcare, Rick Beckler, Director of Hospitality Services at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wis. said the hospital purchases locally grown food for its nutrition benefits as well as the community benefit.

“In the last two years we bought local bread, cheese, produce, beef and buffalo products as much as we could.”

But Beckler wanted more.

Sacred Heart Hospital’s annual food budget is between $2 and $3 million and they are committed to keeping much of that in western Wisconsin, while providing the freshest, most nutritious products possible to patients, staff and visitors. Sacred Heart’s green team is working with a local farmers co-operative to launch the Buy Local Consortium, which will support local and regional farms by linking institutional buyers with growers.

The initiative will guarantee a fair price for local growers and buyers for the purchase of agricultural products, including fresh produce and USDA or State Inspected beef, poultry, and other livestock. In addition to bolstering the local economy, the volume generated is expected to create production and distribution jobs.

The Buy Local Consortium can ensure producers have cash crops going year round. “If I need 200 pounds of ground beef a week, I need that no matter where I source it from,” said Beckler. “The same is true with produce. But I want to get it from here.” The local angle is so important to Beckler.

Jet fresh cantaloupe was blamed for the salmonella poisoning across the country in February and March 2008. The nation’s largest-ever outbreak of salmonella from produce began in April and continued through July 2008. “It’s not that it can’t happen with local growers,” said Beckler, “but at least we know where our products are coming from. We will be doing walkthroughs of the fields and ranches, and will look at the animals. We know our farmers and trust our farmers.

“I grew up in a small farm community, so I know what it’s like to bust your butt all year long and only get 90 cents a bushel for corn,” Beckler said. “This consortium will put dollars in producers’ pockets, while we provide healthier food on our trays.

“Our customers are ecstatic to learn the ice cream they are eating was produced locally, perhaps by someone they know from church or their kid’s school. There will always be a place for big business, but people are happy to support their community, and I’m happy I can play a role in that.

“My oldest son is 23 and he said to me recently, ‘You know dad, I’m so glad you are thinking like this and are making something happen.’ That makes a dad feel good.”