Fact Sheets
Kaiser Permanente and Healthy, Sustainable Food
Kaiser Permanente recognizes that healthy eating is critical to healthy living. The need to support good nutrition has taken on added urgency with our increased understanding of the obesity epidemic in the United States, and its causes. Over the last few years, a farmers market movement has taken hold at Kaiser Permanente. Individual facilities have supported farmers markets that help staff, members, and the community to eat well and make good choices by increasing access to fresh produce.
Because Kaiser Permanente recognizes that people can’t be healthy when they live in unhealthy environments, the organization’s efforts go beyond the doctor’s office and into communities — focusing on schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces.
- In May of 2003, Dr. Preston Maring founded the first ever hospital-based farmers market at the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center. The community embraced the market; today, Kaiser Permanente has 28 farmers markets in six states.
- Kaiser Permanente also has started to offer the delivery of produce "farm boxes" to employees and physicians who don’t have close access to farmers markets.
- Kaiser Permanente strives to provide locally grown produce for hospital meals. The organization serves local produce in patient meals at 19 regional Kaiser Permanente hospitals.
- Sixty tons of the produce served in Kaiser Permanente’s hospitals in Northern California in 2007 came from local farms. This stems from a collaboration with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, which supports family-scale agriculture that cares for the land, sustains local economies and promotes social justice.
- By partnering with local growers, Kaiser Permanente hopes to support the development of local and sustainable food systems as a public health tool and reduce long-distance food shipment.
- Through Kaiser Permanente’s Health Eating/Active Living initiative, the organization works to bring healthy food to the communities it serves. These efforts include work with community groups and store owners to bring healthy food into corner stores, in addition to working with schools, city parks and other youth-serving organizations to offer healthier foods to kids.
- Kaiser Permanente sponsors farmers markets and stands in neighborhoods where there is no other source of healthy food.
- Kaiser Permanente serves hormone-free milk in hospitals as well as cafeterias and vending services in California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington.
- Kaiser Permanente has implemented a "Healthy Picks" program in 32 medical centers in California, Hawaii and Oregon. Offerings include whole grains, lowfat dairy, and fruits and vegetables, as well as products made with trans fat-free oils. The program has been successful in helping our members and staff make healthier food and beverage choices through vending and cafeteria services.
