Sharing strategies to create healthier food environments

Gleaning 2016_cropped
In 2016, the Healthy Roots Collaborative in Vermont worked with ten farms and gleaned over 10,600 pounds of produce,
which was distributed to 18 area food pantries and meal programs (Northwestern Medical Center).

Nearly forty hospital professionals, community organizations, and public health advocates gathered in Worcester on June 27 to discuss their shared interest in promoting healthy food access. The event was one of eight roundtables held across the country to share the findings and resources developed as part of our three-year project exploring hospital community benefit practices. The event also highlighted the intersection of our national and state level projects focused on hospital investments to create healthier food environments.

The objective of the roundtable was two-pronged. First, we sought to introduce hospital community benefit professionals and allies from their communities to the “Delivering community benefit: Healthy food playbook.” Second, the event served to share important information on recent changes to Massachusetts’ state guidelines governing community benefit and engagement activities. Participants heard from hospital-community organization collaborations about their partnerships to improve healthy food access. The featured speakers included:

  1. Jeff Harness of Cooley Dickinson Health Care and Caitlin Marquis of Healthy Hampshire discussed their longstanding partnership and their recent collaboration on a participatory food access assessment.
  2. Monica Lowell of UMass Memorial Health Care and Steve Fischer of Regional Environmental Council (Worcester) shared the account of their evolving work to support urban agriculture, youth development, and community food security.
  3. David Maffeo of Boston Medical Center described his facility’s preventive food pantry and the recent addition of a rooftop garden that supplies fresh produce to the kitchen and pantry, and serves as the site for youth summer camps, field trips, and nutrition education sessions.

View resources from the roundtable, including recordings of key presentations