2 years, 40 hospitals, 19 farmers

Celebrating Nourished by New England

6 min readNov 6, 2019

Over the course of the two-year Nourished by New England program, participating hospitals spent more than $5 million on local foods, serving healthy food to patrons and supporting New England producers. This innovative seasonal harvest program united more than 40 hospitals with 19 farmers and food businesses.

Bringing the farm to the tray

While many institutions have robust local purchasing programs, food service operators struggle with promoting their efforts. Faced with limited budgets and time, promoting their work falls on the backburner. Participating in Nourished by New England, gave Barbara Haskell, chef at Northern Light Blue Hill, a 25-bed critical access hospital in Blue Hill, Maine, a chance to showcase local ingredients, educate customers, and dress up her cafeteria.

Developed with funds from the Department of Agriculture Local Food Promotion Program, Nourished by New England sought to influence both supply and demand by making it easier for hospitals to serve and promote local seasonal foods and to support growing small and mid-sized producers to develop more institutional customers.

The program provided participants with illustrated marketing materials, which served to dress up cafeterias across the region while educating customers on the opportunities for healthy seasonal eating year-round.

Over the course of the two-year program, Nourished by New England featured four local food items per season. These items were seasonally available foods produced and harvested in New England. The program provided participants with illustrated marketing materials, which served to dress up cafeterias across the region while educating customers on the opportunities for healthy seasonal eating year-round.

“The posters stood out in a really good way. Having attractive, professionally produced materials drew customer attention and enlivened the cafeteria. The posters also helped customers connect the featured food on their plates to the seasons.” — Barbara Haskell, Northern Light Blue Hill

Having access to the materials, created a foundation for integrating more local foods into her menus. She used items in everyday dishes and also created specials to highlight specific products, running a Fish Friday event to showcase hake and making a harvest bowl featuring local squash and apples.

Beyond her cafeteria service, Haskell also incorporated featured items into community-focused events, serving a local butternut squash soup for a community harvest dinner and using featured items in dishes for a community meal at a local church.

More than 40 hospitals, 19 farmers and food businesses and dozens of community partners from food hubs to processers to distributors united through the innovative program.

“It really fits in well in our culture of trying to provide healthy and fun meals. Staff enjoy the creativity of recipes and local goods are great to highlight!” — Andrea Wheeler, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center

Over the course of the two-year Nourished by New England program, participating hospitals spent more than $5 million on local foods, serving healthy food to patrons and supporting New England producers. Local purchasing provides an opportunity for hospitals to offer healthy foods while stimulating the local economy: a win-win for all.

Helping producers serve health care

Two Massachusetts hospitals, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Cape Cod and Faulkner Hospital were looking for a local source of greens. Thanks to connections developed while participating in Nourished, they identified Queens Greens in Amherst, Mass., as a source. Queens Greens came at the recommendation of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources as a farm that had the volume and consistency needed for an institutional market.

For small and mid-size local producers, institutional sales can be a turning point for their business growth. Faces of New England, the supplier-focused component of the program provided 19 farmers and food businesses with ongoing technical assistance to integrate institutional sales into their business plans and to connect with potential buyers.

The farm and food businesses of the Faces by New England program came from all corners of the region — from northern Maine to Providence, Rhode Island. They represent new entrepreneurs and multi-generation family farms. They offer fresh produce, tofu, vegetable oil, poultry, beef, beans, and many other products that you likely use every day. *Meet them all*.

Over the two-year program, sales increased for all the value-added food businesses. Those selling raw produce had mixed results. Health Care Without Harm has compiled the lessons learned from this cohort into a farmers guide to institutional sales to help other producers learn how to work with health care purchasers, and avoid some of the challenges faced by others.

“Such a big part of farming for me is ‘food is your medicine’ so finding ways to connect high-quality nutritious food to folks who are trying to get healthy, that’s key.” — Sarah Voiland, Red Fire Farm

The Massachusets hospitals have since replaced all the mixed greens and spinach on their salad bar that came from national sources with Queens Greens and are marketing the product as “local” with pride.

Continued support for local food

Building off of our experience with the seasonal harvest program, Health Care Without Harm developed resources for organizations that are interested in doing something similar.

With the end of Nourished by New England, Health Care Without Harm will no longer facilitate a seasonal harvest campaign. However, the marketing materials will still be available on our website.

As Nourished by New England comes to a close and we look toward 2020, we are excited to share new opportunities for our New England network.

Regional leadership team

In 2020, we will launch a regional leadership team, open to all health care partners in New England, which will meet virtually, on a quarterly basis, to learn about different topics related to sustainability in food service, meet regional producers, troubleshoot challenges, and share successes. Look for more information in early 2020.

Plant-forward eating initiative

Health Care Without Harm supports a transition to less meat consumption and increased consumption of plant-based proteins that are regionally and sustainably grown. This strategy can help the region meet the New England Food Vision, improve health, and reduce the climate impact of our food system.

To support health care in this transition we will:

Launch a plant-based purchasing pilot program to connect hospitals with regional producers of legumes and other plant based proteins.
Provide technical assistance to health care facilities that sign up for the Cool Food Pledge, an effort to reduce the climate impact of institutional food service by 25% by 2030.

New England Food Processors Collective

What do you do with 800 pounds of “ugly” apples? If you are Boston Children’s Hospital, you make applesauce and a partnership that benefits farmers, hospitals, food businesses and the planet. (CommonWealth Kitchen)

Health Care Without Harm will continue to facilitate the development of a regional food processors collective for processors that source from within New England and pay a minimum $15 per hour wage to all employees.

In 2020, we will be focused on establishing forward contracts between institutions and member processors to support development of the collective.