YORK, Pa. — UPMC Memorial Hospital's mission is to nurse its patients back to health. A new initiative will now use the food the patients eat to help do so.
The hospital and the UPMC Pinnacle Foundation are teaming up with York Fresh Food Farms to launch a Farm to Hospital program to establish a sustainable, year-round working farm on the hospital campus in Shiloh to provide food to patients, guests and staff.
The program, which is the first of its kind in Pennsylvania for a major hospital, is already producing 400 to 500 pounds of produce per week through the three greenhouse-like structures called “hoop houses” on the hospital grounds.
The hoop houses are powered by solar energy and their design traps heat and allows for year-round farming of the wide variety of vegetables grown inside, which include spinach, kale, lettuce, broccoli and red beets.
The program was conceived by breast cancer surgeon Kim Mudge, who originally thought of the concept five years ago.
"This came as an epiphany one winter morning," Dr. Mudge said. "I came upon an article that addressed a farm-to-hospital concept promoting wellness versus illness, and it seemed to be a pivotal paradigm shift."
Dr. Mudge pitched the idea to hospital leadership and says the program is a way to provide an all-encompassing approach to making people healthy
"It's not just giving medicines or joint replacements," Dr. Mudge said. "It's about coming together as a team to promote wellness: exercise, spiritual health and nutrition."