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Oregon Center for Environment Health Named
"Visionary of the Year" by Oregon Tilth
Oregon Center for Environment Health (OCEH) was presented the Visionary of the Year Award by Oregon Tilth at their annual conference on Friday, January 18th, 2008. This award is being made in recognition of their Healthy Food in Healthcare Program which employs market-based forces to increase demand for sustainably produced foods, improve hospital food quality, and bolster the local economy. With this award, Oregon Tilth is recognizing the Health Food in Healthcare Program for its effort and success in bringing together diverse constituencies to apply innovation and creativity to advance sustainable agriculture.
For the full press release, click here.
OCEH Hosts Sustainable Food Choices Roundtable
Hospitals are searching for healthier, more sustainably-produced foods – how can suppliers respond? The Center, in collaboration with community parters and Portland-area hospitals, hosted a roundtable discussion to bring hospital food service representatives together with representatives from healthcare group purchasing organizations and food distributors. Over 60 stakeholders attended. The roundtable coverered hospital and supplier commitments to sustainability, logistics for sourcing sustainable food, and how to make sustainable food economically feasible. Read the invitation and agenda and view the presentations for more information.
Portland hospitals test bioplastic utensils
The goal of the Center's Biobased Foodware and Composting project is to create a no-waste food system in Oregon hospitals. To do this, Center staff work with hospital food service representatives to explore ways to eliminate disposable plastic food ware from their operations. Recently, the Center organized pilots in Oregon hospitals to test cutlery made from corn and potato starches. Customer feedback was very positive. Read our upcoming Winter 2007 Newsletter to find out more.
St. Charles Medical Center incorporates local foods and natural beef.
St. Charles Medical center in Bend has began an organic farmers market on its campus and is using food from the market in its kitchens for patient, staff, and visitor meals. This has resulted in the medical center using over four hundred pounds of organic, local foods per week with very little increase in costs. St. Charles has also switched to using natural beef. Patients, visitors, and staff have been very pleased.
Good Shepherd Hospital begins serving organic produce and hormone free meat.
Good Shepherd hospital in Hermiston is committed to providing healthy food for their patients and staff. Eliminating processed foods, all meals are now made from scratch. The hospital uses locally-sourced organic produce and hormone/antibiotic free meet when its available. Read more about it here
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