October 14, 2005

Food for Thought

It is safe to say that many Americans eat at least five meals per week away from their homes, yet schools, corporations and large institutions like hospitals have been slow to convert their kitchens, vending machines and snack bars to healthier alternatives. In recent months there have been numerous newspaper and magazine articles about colleges with on-campus organic farms, and the swelling movement to "buy locally" for freshness and quality and to support local economies.

With the rising cost of fuel, consider this: The long-distance transport of food products is one of the country's primary consumers of fuel. If you live in the central US, your food may travel 1200 to 1500 miles from the California farm where it is grown to your table; if you eat imported produce that number can easily triple.

In the September 2005 issue of Delicious Living magazine, an article describes "An Organic Change" in the way large institutions view their roles in providing healthy, fresh food. Hospitals are the second largest consumer of catered foods after educational institutions, buying $3.3 billion of food in 2004. New thinking about institutional food involves:

1. Nutritional content (especially watching fat, sodium and fiber contents)
2. Taste
3. Elimination of antibiotics and hormones in the food supply
4. Contracting with local farmers for locally produced foods.

An entirely different approach by some members of the Kaiser Permanente system has been to hold weekly community farmers' markets on hospital grounds. While this may not change the food that the hospital offers, it does visibly connect the idea of local organic produce with good health practices. If your hospital or nursing home has a program to go organic or to improve the food available to patients/residents and staff, please let me know so I can pass this on to our readers.

The Delicious Living article can be read in its entirety at:
www.deliciouslivingmag.com/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&issueID=75&articleID=1701

For a listing of model programs and policies in healthcare environments:
www.preventioninstitute.org/sa/enact/healthcare/hospital_nutrition_2b.html

Other links:
Stonyfield Farm's Healthy Vending Machine program for schools:
www.stonyfield.com/menuforchange
www.sustainabletable.org
www.organicconsumers.org

Best wishes!

I welcome your feedback and your contributions to the 30 second vacation. Feel free to write to me with your ideas - email feedback. I cannot promise a response but I will read everything.

copyright Katherine Hutman 10/05