Farm-to-table emerging alternative to hospital fare, from Valley Stream to Stony Brook
Russell Ficke, executive chef at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream, left, delivers food to hospital patient Bevolin Jarrett of Springfield Gardens, Queens, on Sept. 9. Credit: Barry Sloan
Tiny green lettuce leaves sprouted toward the sunlight from the soil in a seedling tray in a Malverne greenhouse on one of the last working farms in Nassau County.
"Everything starts in this room, starts as a little plant and then from there we up-pot it and then it goes out into the fields to get bigger and healthier," said Michael D'Angelo, operations manager at Crossroads Farm at Grossman’s.
When these leaves grow up, some of the heads will nourish patients and staff at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream, a Northwell Health hospital that's less than two miles away. Earlier this year, the farm and hospital agreed to a new arrangement in which the farm sells its surplus — whatever it can’t sell in its store or to restaurants — to the hospital.
The farm-to-bedside approach — bringing fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs from a five-acre suburban farm to a hospital campus off the Southern State Parkway — is an emerging trend on Long Island and across the country. Other Long Island health systems are finding ways to bring fresh fruits and vegetables to hospital trays and kitchen tables, through partnerships or gardens of their own.
The arrival of fresh produce has reinvigorated the hospital's menu, said Russell Ficke, executive chef at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream.
"This is coming right from the farm," Ficke, speaking in his busy kitchen, said. "I'm getting it within hours of them picking it. You can taste the freshness. You can taste the ripeness."
The hospital's menu is emblazoned with gold lettering on linen paper. Main courses include wild-caught fish of the day — poached in court bouillon and served with sauteed baby spinach or a local spring green salad.
On Long Island, hospitals are partnering with local farms to bring fresh food into patients' rooms. They are holding farmers markets on their campuses and providing fresh produce to people in their communities.
Catholic Health partners with the nonprofit Smile Farms to provide meals to food-insecure patients at its Mercy Hospital Family Care Center in Rockville Centre, an outpatient clinic for women and children.
Stony Brook University Hospital grows its own vegetables on a 2,242-square-foot rooftop farm that serves the 624-bed hospital. About 5% to 7% of the produce served to patients comes from the rooftop farm and local farms, hospital officials said.
"We are an over 600-bed hospital, so we don't grow all of the vegetables for our patients," said Josephine Connolly-Schoonen, executive director of the nutrition division for Stony Brook Medicine. But, she said, "The produce on the tray is a message ... We believe so strongly that fresh produce, vegetables and whole plant-based foods are so important for your health, that we grow them for you."
Developing healthy eating habits is a key tool in the fight against chronic lifestyle diseases such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and insulin resistance, data from health studies shows.
A whole food, plant-based diet is important for patients, many of whom suffer from heart disease and diabetes, Connolly-Schoonen said.
"We want to help them to understand how important food is to prevent re-hospitalization, to get them on the road to a healthier lifestyle," she said.
Vegetables from the rooftop are tastier and more nutritious than the produce grown on big farms and shipped in from out of state, she said.
"When foods are grown organically with organic methods, they grow slower and they have more time to absorb nutrients from the soil," Connolly-Schoonen said.
Meals made using produce from Stony Brook's rooftop garden include: ancient grain salad with grilled chicken or tofu; creamy Tuscan garlic salmon with rice and rooftop veggies; and a health salad with red and green peppers, zucchini, celery, cucumbers and carrots marinated in salt, pepper, vinegar and a dash of sugar.
In Mineola, NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island runs an annual farmers market from June to mid-September. It brings nearly a dozen local vendors who sell fruits, vegetables, seafood, cheese and other foods. The hospital also conducts live demonstrations showing patients how to incorporate produce into their diets and distributes recipe cards featuring market ingredients.
Earlier this month at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream, Bevolin Jarrett, 81, of Springfield Gardens, Queens, ate an eggplant Parmesan in her hospital room. It featured fresh eggplant and tomatoes from Crossroads Farm.
"They're alive, they're green and they're pretty and they're crispy, so it makes a difference," Jarrett said. "The presentation is very fabulous. So because of that, you want to eat it."
Last year, officials from Long Island Jewish Valley Stream visited Crossroads Farm intending to become a financial sponsor.
"I passed that farm 1,001 times," said Joe Dobias, director of food and nutrition at the hospital. "I always wondered what was going on. I never actually thought it was as big as it is."
Dobias said the arrangement offers mutual benefits. The farm "is not in position to produce enough for the volume we do ... but it's a great way for us to pull in local community agriculture, [and] supplement the system that we're already using now."
Ficke said he talks to D’Angelo regularly about what’s coming in to plan and adjust as necessary.
"He tells me what he has, and I'll make sure I have it on my menu so we can use it," Ficke said.
Walking through rows of organic vegetables recently on his farm, D’Angelo said he scours seed catalogs to find interesting varieties to grow.
"We're not trying to just grow the typical stuff that you can get in any grocery store," D’Angelo said. "We're really trying to grow things that are hard to find."
Knowing the farm has a buyer helps to support business operations.
For example, if the farm grows 1,000 pounds of tomatoes, D'Angelo knows the hospital will buy about 200 pounds, he said.
"Once we close the store, we immediately take inventory of what we have," D’Angelo said. "Everything that we know we're not going to use next time we're open ... it's in a truck and it's going to the hospital."
Tiny green lettuce leaves sprouted toward the sunlight from the soil in a seedling tray in a Malverne greenhouse on one of the last working farms in Nassau County.
"Everything starts in this room, starts as a little plant and then from there we up-pot it and then it goes out into the fields to get bigger and healthier," said Michael D'Angelo, operations manager at Crossroads Farm at Grossman’s.
When these leaves grow up, some of the heads will nourish patients and staff at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream, a Northwell Health hospital that's less than two miles away. Earlier this year, the farm and hospital agreed to a new arrangement in which the farm sells its surplus — whatever it can’t sell in its store or to restaurants — to the hospital.
The farm-to-bedside approach — bringing fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs from a five-acre suburban farm to a hospital campus off the Southern State Parkway — is an emerging trend on Long Island and across the country. Other Long Island health systems are finding ways to bring fresh fruits and vegetables to hospital trays and kitchen tables, through partnerships or gardens of their own.
WHAT TO KNOW
- Crossroads Farm at Grossman’s and Long Island Jewish Valley Stream have an arrangement in which the farm sells its surplus to the hospital.
- The farm-to-bedside approach is an emerging trend on Long Island and across the country.
- Long Island hospitals are partnering with local farms to bring fresh food into patients' rooms, whether it's through a farmers market on a hospital campus or even growing it themselves in a rooftop garden.
The arrival of fresh produce has reinvigorated the hospital's menu, said Russell Ficke, executive chef at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream.
"This is coming right from the farm," Ficke, speaking in his busy kitchen, said. "I'm getting it within hours of them picking it. You can taste the freshness. You can taste the ripeness."
The hospital's menu is emblazoned with gold lettering on linen paper. Main courses include wild-caught fish of the day — poached in court bouillon and served with sauteed baby spinach or a local spring green salad.
Farm manager Annemarie Ng picks green beans at the rooftop farm above Stony Brook University Hospital in Stony Brook on Thursday. Credit: Newsday / Steve Pfost
On Long Island, hospitals are partnering with local farms to bring fresh food into patients' rooms. They are holding farmers markets on their campuses and providing fresh produce to people in their communities.
Catholic Health partners with the nonprofit Smile Farms to provide meals to food-insecure patients at its Mercy Hospital Family Care Center in Rockville Centre, an outpatient clinic for women and children.
Stony Brook University Hospital grows its own vegetables on a 2,242-square-foot rooftop farm that serves the 624-bed hospital. About 5% to 7% of the produce served to patients comes from the rooftop farm and local farms, hospital officials said.
"We are an over 600-bed hospital, so we don't grow all of the vegetables for our patients," said Josephine Connolly-Schoonen, executive director of the nutrition division for Stony Brook Medicine. But, she said, "The produce on the tray is a message ... We believe so strongly that fresh produce, vegetables and whole plant-based foods are so important for your health, that we grow them for you."
Whole food approach
Developing healthy eating habits is a key tool in the fight against chronic lifestyle diseases such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and insulin resistance, data from health studies shows.
A whole food, plant-based diet is important for patients, many of whom suffer from heart disease and diabetes, Connolly-Schoonen said.
"We want to help them to understand how important food is to prevent re-hospitalization, to get them on the road to a healthier lifestyle," she said.
Vegetables from the rooftop are tastier and more nutritious than the produce grown on big farms and shipped in from out of state, she said.
"When foods are grown organically with organic methods, they grow slower and they have more time to absorb nutrients from the soil," Connolly-Schoonen said.
Meals made using produce from Stony Brook's rooftop garden include: ancient grain salad with grilled chicken or tofu; creamy Tuscan garlic salmon with rice and rooftop veggies; and a health salad with red and green peppers, zucchini, celery, cucumbers and carrots marinated in salt, pepper, vinegar and a dash of sugar.
In Mineola, NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island runs an annual farmers market from June to mid-September. It brings nearly a dozen local vendors who sell fruits, vegetables, seafood, cheese and other foods. The hospital also conducts live demonstrations showing patients how to incorporate produce into their diets and distributes recipe cards featuring market ingredients.
'Right from the farm'
Earlier this month at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream, Bevolin Jarrett, 81, of Springfield Gardens, Queens, ate an eggplant Parmesan in her hospital room. It featured fresh eggplant and tomatoes from Crossroads Farm.
"They're alive, they're green and they're pretty and they're crispy, so it makes a difference," Jarrett said. "The presentation is very fabulous. So because of that, you want to eat it."
Last year, officials from Long Island Jewish Valley Stream visited Crossroads Farm intending to become a financial sponsor.
"I passed that farm 1,001 times," said Joe Dobias, director of food and nutrition at the hospital. "I always wondered what was going on. I never actually thought it was as big as it is."
Dobias said the arrangement offers mutual benefits. The farm "is not in position to produce enough for the volume we do ... but it's a great way for us to pull in local community agriculture, [and] supplement the system that we're already using now."
Ficke said he talks to D’Angelo regularly about what’s coming in to plan and adjust as necessary.
"He tells me what he has, and I'll make sure I have it on my menu so we can use it," Ficke said.
Walking through rows of organic vegetables recently on his farm, D’Angelo said he scours seed catalogs to find interesting varieties to grow.
"We're not trying to just grow the typical stuff that you can get in any grocery store," D’Angelo said. "We're really trying to grow things that are hard to find."
Knowing the farm has a buyer helps to support business operations.
For example, if the farm grows 1,000 pounds of tomatoes, D'Angelo knows the hospital will buy about 200 pounds, he said.
"Once we close the store, we immediately take inventory of what we have," D’Angelo said. "Everything that we know we're not going to use next time we're open ... it's in a truck and it's going to the hospital."
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