The Center for Food and Justice is pleased to announce its newest publication, Farm to Hospital: Promoting Health and Supporting Local Agriculture. This paper explores the contradictions between the missions of many hospitals and the reality of their on-site food options, and offers suggestions for improvement along with several case examples. Despite the strain on the American health care system created by diet-related illnesses, more and more hospitals are allowing fast food franchises to sell food within their facilities. Just as farm to school programs can be an effective way to improve school food options and support local farmers, this report promotes expanding the scope of the model to include hospitals and clinics as institutions through which the same goals can be accomplished. Farm to hospital programs could result in fresher and healthier patient and cafeteria foods, facilitate health education and promotion strategies, and help support small local farms with a portion of the health care industry’s annual $3.3 billion food budget. Hospital and clinic administrators, doctors, nurses, food service staff, patients, and community members will find the topics covered in this paper useful when considering how health care can best respond to the needs of patients. The report can be downloaded at: http://departments.oxy.edu/uepi/cfj/resources/farm_to_hospital.pdf
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