Sustainable Operations Series: Healthy Food in Health Care - Putting Sustainability on the Menu

Overview

Session Description

By prioritizing sustainable food, hospitals can move the food system in a more sustainable direction; improve the health of their patients, staff, and visitors; and invest in the well-being of communities and the environment. The way food is produced, processed, distributed, and consumed has significant impacts on human health, climate change, air and water pollution, and the viability of future agricultural production. In this session we will explore these environmental and public health motivations for building sustainable food purchasing initiatives at hospitals and hear about hospitals in California, Washington and New England working on increasing their purchasing of a range of food product categories from produce to meat and seafood, and the strategies and key resources they used to create these successful programs.

Learning Objectives

Learn about the environmental and public health benefits of purchasing sustainably produced food.
Hear case study examples from across the country of hospitals increasing their sustainable food purchasing efforts.
Be introduced to key resources for goal setting, implementing, tracking and reporting for successful hospital sustainable food purchasing initiatives.

Presenters

Kathy Pryor, MA, Washington Healthy Food in Health Care Project

Kathy Pryor is the Washington State Healthy Food in Health Care Program Director for Health Care Without Harm. She has a Masters in Environment & Community with a focus in Local & Sustainable Food Systems, and has worked on food issues with Food & Water Watch, Washington Toxics Coalition, and Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. She is the author of the children's book "Sylvia's Spinach" and the forthcoming "Zora's Zucchini".

Kendra Klein, California Healthy Food in Health Care Project

Kendra Klein is a writer, researcher, and advocate whose work focuses on the nexus of sustainable food systems and public health. She is a Senior Program Associate at Physicians for Social Responsibility where she coordinates the California Healthy Food in Health Care program of Health Care Without Harm. Klein received her PhD from the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley. Her research examined the movement toward environmental nutrition in the health care sector, including supply chain issues related to hospital sourcing of sustainable foods. Klein worked on a variety of environmental health campaigns as a community organizer and program associate at the national non-profit organization Breast Cancer Action, including chemical policy reform, corporate accountability related to pink ribbon fundraising, and precautionary principle implementation. She has apprenticed on organic farms in California and Hawaii and ran a Farm & Garden summer program at Children's Day School in San Francisco. Klein is a 2011 Switzer Environmental Fellow and has written for The Nation, Environmental Politics, and Civil Eats. She holds a bachelors degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus in Environmental Studies from Miami University of Ohio.

John Stoddard, New England Healthy Food in Health Care Project

John Stoddard, MS. is a Healthy Food in Health Care Coordinator for the global non-profit organization, Health Care Without Harm. He works throughout New England on facilitating local and sustainable food procurement for health care institutions, with a specific focus on Connecticut and Rhode Island. Prior to joining the New England team, John worked on these efforts in Oregon through the Oregon Center for Environmental Health. John began his career in the waste reduction field, working with institutions and municipalities to decrease their landfill bound waste.

He has experience as an independent sustainability consultant to Boston restaurants, and is a founder of Higher Ground Farm, a Boston-based urban agriculture company that grows food on rooftops and other urban spaces. He earned his Master of Science from Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition specializing in the Agriculture, Food, and Environment program.