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| Contact: Christine Hill (612) 873-5719 |
03/17/09 |
Last week Hennepin became the largest hospital in Minnesota and the first public hospital in the country to sign the Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge, a voluntary commitment to work in a stepwise fashion to serve food that is healthier for people and the environment.
Similar to a recent move to serve only trans-fat free food, hospital leadership and nutrition staff decided that signing the Pledge was “the right thing to do.” “We have already taken some steps toward improving the overall sustainability of our purchasing and operations, says Bill Marks, Director of Food and Nutrition at Hennepin, “So signing the Pledge seemed like a positive next step toward guiding our efforts to help our community eat healthier.”
The Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge, a voluntary program of Health Care Without Harm, outlines steps hospital can take to increase patient and employee access to food that is not only nutritious, but supportive of local small and mid-scale farms and produced via means that are healthier for growers, workers and the environment. In signing the Pledge, Hennepin joins more than 200 health care facilities nationwide that have made a similar commitment, including Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota and St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth.
“In Minnesota and across the country hospitals are slowly but surely changing the food they serve in recognition that their food dollars are an important investment in preventative medicine,” says Marie Kulick, HCWH’s Midwest Healthy Food Coordinator. “More hospitals are also eager to support farmers in their local communities. We are fortunate to have facilities like Hennepin to take leadership in Minnesota, and we hope that more hospitals across the region will follow suit.”
“We see the Pledge as a foundation for increasing our efforts around health and sustainability,” says Jeanette Taylor Jones, Hennepin Vice President of Professional and Support Services. “Though hospitals always need to consider costs, especially in today’s flagging economy, our staff is committed to doing what they can to support local farmers, increase patient and employee access to healthy food and keep us moving in a more sustainable direction.”
In the coming months, Hennepin will be working to increase the amount of local produce they purchase in season and to incorporate more organic and other sustainably produced foods into the pediatric patient menu. Hennepin food service managers have also been working to increase staff access to fresh local, sustainably grown produce by becoming a trial drop site for a farm that offers Community Supported Agriculture shares throughout the growing season.
Hennepin has also switched to serving all certified organic and fair trade coffee in the cafeteria, and is about to embark on a full-scale organics collection program whereby most hospital food waste, milk cartons, paper napkins, and tray liners will be composted. For more on the Health Care Without Harm see www.healthyfoodinhealthcare.org.
Celebrating its 20th year of being Minnesota’s first Level 1 Trauma Center, Hennepin County Medical Center is a comprehensive academic medical center and public teaching hospital with the largest emergency department in the state. In addition to the 446-bed acute care hospital and primary care and specialty clinics located in downtown Minneapolis, Hennepin offers four primary care clinics in Minneapolis and suburban Hennepin County.
For the twelfth year in a row, Hennepin County Medical Center is listed in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of the top U.S. Hospitals in its annual “America’s Best Hospitals” report.
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