New England Ambassadors Foster Community Access to Sustainably-Produced Foods 

by Betsy Skoda

On January 30th, the New England Healthy Food in Health Care team gathered at Huggins Hospital in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire to meet our new class of Healthy Food in Health Care Ambassadors. This meeting marked the kick-off of a second, yearlong effort to support dedicated professionals interested in increasing their institutions’ engagement in healthy and sustainable food systems.

Our 2017 Ambassadors hail from across the region, representing five of the six New England states. They share a strong commitment to healthy and sustainable food and extensive experience in healthcare. Using their unique perspective and experience, they will carry out projects focused on increasing engagement in and/or institutional support in one of the following areas:

  • Reduce amount of meat served at facility;
  • Increase the amount of sustainably-raised meat served at facility;
  • Increase local food procurement at facility;
  • Foster cross-departmental connections related to healthy food access (community benefits, employee wellness, food services, etc.); and
  • Engage facility in a community food initiative.
  • Participants also pledge to share their projects through conference presentations, grand rounds, or organizing a meeting or webinar.

Kate Saunders of UMass Memorial and Kurt Roessler of Huggins Hospital, both participants in our 2016 Ambassador program, will serve as mentors for this year’s class.

The 2017 Healthy Food In Health Care Ambassadors!

Jessamy Wood
Huggins Hospital (New Hampshire)

Jessamy Wood, Clinical Dietitian at Huggins Hospital in New Hampshire, will work to increase Huggins’ staff patronage of the Wolfeboro Farmers Market, located across the street from the hospital. Jess will start by surveying hospital staff on their usage of the market and determine the reasons why it is underutilized.  Based on the survey results, she will enact programs to encourage market use. Her initial ideas include expanding employee “perks” (such as birthday and holiday gift cards) to include farmers market credit; organizing events such as dietitian tours of farmers market that include recipe sharing and nutrition information on the seasonal produce available at market; organizing a walking activity to the farmers market during the Employee Wellness Walking Challenge; working with human resources to lengthen lunch breaks on market days to give employees more time to leave campus and go to the market; and holding cooking demonstrations in the cafeteria for clinical groups and for the public. Jess continues the great work of last year’s Ambassador, Kurt Roessler, also of Huggins.

Johanna Setta, Healthy Roots Collaborative
Northwest Medical Center (Vermont)

Johanna runs the Healthy Roots Collaborative, a regional food system initiative housed in the Lifestyle Medicine Department of Northwestern Medical Center. Healthy Roots supports increased healthy food access and food system infrastructure. As an ambassador, Johanna will support the Northwestern Medical Center's cafeteria manager in serving significantly more local foods than previously, by researching various local suppliers and distributors and exploring options for structuring the cafeteria pricing to offset the cost of local foods.

Emily Gesino, System Clinical Nutrition Manager
CharterCare (Rhode Island)

As System Clinical Nutrition Manager for Charter Care, Emily works across two facilities, Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima. Emily will work to reduce the amount of meat served in her facilities across retail and patient lines. She will introduce new meatless options, assess patient and customer satisfaction, track sales of reduced meat/meatless dishes in retail settings, and calculate the cost savings benefit of serving less meat. By introducing more sustainable alternatives, including legumes and whole grains, she aims to promote the health, environmental, and financial benefits of using and eating less meat. She will also plan a training for physicians related to her project focused on geriatric patients and food insecurity.

Rick Barisano, Executive Chef

North Shore Medical Center/Partners (Massachusetts)

Rick Barisano, Executive Chef of North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) in Massachusetts will work in his facility to reduce the overall amount of meat served and to increase use of sustainably-produced meat.  Rick will employ strategies such as the blended burger and other culinary techniques to reduce meat and work with his employer, Sodexo, to increase options for sustainably-produced meat. Rick will work to build a viable Less Meat, Better Meat program in his facility that he can pass along through both his Sodexo network and the Partners HealthCare network, of which NSMC is a member.  In doing so, he can make a broader impact beyond his facility.

Kathy King, Vermont HCWH Working Group

Vermont

Kathy is a longtime member of the Vermont Healthy Food in Health Care working group and will spend her Ambassador year supporting that group's re-branding and expansion by building a website. The website will include both external and internal resources, allowing it to better serve group members. The Working Group’s task force will develop different aspects of the site—from an internal "inventory of expertise" that will help with responses to inquiries to an external calendar that lists various events and trainings. The goal of the website and the group is to expand the work beyond the core members and to grow its impact throughout Vermont and New England.


Shelly Goraj, Food Service Director

Maine General (Maine)

Shelley Goraj, Food Service Director at Maine General, will take a two-pronged approach to address health in her food service operations. First, she will look to transition her deli service to offer products raised without routine antibiotics. Second, she will develop a food waste program, including a zero-sort disposal program in the kitchen, to address the environmental health impacts of her food service. For both projects, she will be researching best practices, allowing her staff time for testing and evaluation of the changes, and honing the outcome to best suit her cafeteria.

We are excited to support and guide these dedicated professionals and celebrate the change they achieve in the coming year!

Are you interested in learning more about how you can create similar changes in your facility? Our website has background information on our initiatives to advance healthy and sustainable food systems. You can also register to receive our national and New England newsletters with information about upcoming activities.


Betsy Skoda is a New England Community Food Systems Consultant for Health Care Without Harm's Healthy Food in Health Care program