As places of healing, hospitals have a natural incentive to provide food that’s healthy for people and the environment in which we live. Food supply can be met in a variety of ways which have consequences in terms of nutrition, disease risk, public health, environmental health, social and economic well being. These are linked in complex  ways. From the way food is grown, to the way it’s packaged, shipped, consumed and discarded, hospitals' food purchasing decisions can play an important role, both directly and indirectly, in our ecological health.

Health Care Without Harm is working with hospitals to adopt food procurement policies that:

• provide nutritionally improved food for patients, staff, visitors, and the general public, and
• create food systems which are ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially responsible.

By adopting food procurement policies that are ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially responsible, health care systems demonstrate an understanding of the inextricable links between human, public, and ecosystem health.

See our Food & Food Purchasing brochure for a more in-depth understanding of the issues and examples of hospitals that are making a change.

To learn how hospitals are getting started see our menu of options, case studies and other resources.

Key Resources

Menu of Change: A 2008 Survey of Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge Hospitals (pdf)

Robert Wood Johnson White Paper: Redefining Healthy Food

Food & Food Purchasing: A Role for Health Care (pdf)

Healthy Food in Health Care: A Menu of Options (pdf)

Antibiotic Resistance Factsheet (pdf)

HCWH Position Statement on Genetically Engineered Food (pdf)

HCWH's statement on Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) (pdf)