Healthy Food Pledge

More than 220 health care facilities have joined the pledge! Find out more (pdf)

As a responsible provider of health care services, we are committed to the health of our patients, our staff, and the local and global community. We are aware that food production and distribution methods can have tremendous adverse impacts on public environmental health.

As a result, we recognize that for the consumers who eat it, the workers who produce it and the ecosystems that sustain us, healthy food must be defined not only by nutritional quality, but equally by a food system that is economically viable, environmentally sustainable, and supportive of human dignity and justice.

We are committed to the goal of providing local, nutritious and sustainable food.

We pledge to:

• Work with local farmers, community-based organizations and food suppliers to increase the availability of locally-sourced food.
• Encourage our vendors and/or food management companies to supply us with food that is, among other attributes, produced without synthetic pesticides and hormones or antibiotics given to animals in the absence of diagnosed disease and which supports farmer health and welfare, and ecologically protective and restorative agriculture.
• Implement a stepwise program to identify and adopt sustainable food procurement. Begin where fewer barriers exist and immediate steps can be taken. For example, the adoption of rBGH free milk, fair trade coffee, or introduction of organic fresh fruit in the cafeteria.
• Communicate to our Group Purchasing Organizations our interest in foods that are identified as local and certified.
• Educate and communicate within on our system and to our patients and community about our nutritious, socially just and ecological sustainable food healthy food practices and procedures.
• Minimize or beneficially reuse food waste and support the use of food packaging and products which are ecologically protective.
• Develop a program to promote and source from producers and processors which uphold the dignity of family, farmers, workers and their communities and support sustainable and humane agriculture systems.
• Report annually on implementation of this Pledge. See who's on the current list of Pledge hospitals.