Repurposing Waste Streams: Lessons on Integrating Hospital Food Waste into a Community Garden

Adri M. Galvan, Ryan Hanson, Daniel R. George

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

There have been increasing efforts in recent decades to divert institutional food waste into composting programs. As major producers of food waste who must increasingly demonstrate community benefit, hospitals have an incentive to develop such programs. In this article, we explain the emerging opportunity to link hospitals’ food services to local community gardens in order to implement robust composting programs. We describe a partnership model at our hospital in central Pennsylvania, share preliminary outcomes establishing feasibility, and offer guidance for future efforts. We also demonstrate that the integration of medical students in such efforts can foster systems thinking in the development of programs to manage hospital waste streams in more ecologically-friendly ways.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)944-946
Number of pages3
JournalJournal of Community Health
Volume43
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Health(social science)
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

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