“Farm to bedside” plan grows in two hospitals

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — St. Joseph’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, hosts a farmers market every Wednesday in its main lobby featuring produce gown on the hospital’s 25-acre farm.

The land used for the farm was a hospital lawn until 2010 when a horse-drawn plow broke ground on the first 4 acres. The farm, now known as “The Farm at St. Joe’s,” has since expanded to include three large “hoop houses,” greenhouse-like structures that provide seasonal produce for the market -- as well as patient meals, the hospital’s cafeteria and local food banks -- all year long.

“We began the farm in response to health of the community and the health of our own 6,000 hospital workers,” said Rob Casalou, president and CEO of St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor and Livingston hospitals, which are located in Michigan.

Casalou said the farm grows “anything you’d find at your local grocery,” including tomatoes, potatoes and kale. They even keep bees to produce their own honey.

A few years ago, the hospital made one of the hoop houses disability-friAn exercise bike pumps water to irrigate the plants so patients with neurological disorders from the hospital and the nearby Eisenhower Center can water plants by pedaling away.

Across the country in Long Island, New York, Stony Brook Medicine has also embraced the idea of “farm to bedside.” Iman Marghoob, a registered dietician and horticultural specialist in charge of the hospital’s 4,000-square-foot rooftop garden, said the project is just as important for educating staff, patients and students as it is for providing seasonal vegetables and herbs.endly by widening the aisles and raising up the planter boxes to make it easier for a person in a wheelchair to work the soil, Casalou said.