The Healthy Food in Health Care Program is part of a broader, national campaign through Health Care Without Harm. It works to expand the network of interested hospitals transitioning their current food procurement practices toward purchasing more sustainably-produced food for their patients and staff while also making the critical link between how food is grown and distributed and public and environmental health.

Click here to read how a health care facility can get started, or follow in the footsteps of more than forty successful Michigan facilities  who began by signing the Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge! These facilities stay informed about national healthy food in health care trends and state-wide initiatives, conferences and trainings by subscribing to the program's Healthy Food in Health Care e-Newsletter.

Our program also contributes as a:

• Coalition member and regional organizers for the Health Care Without Harm Food Systems Work Group - Our program partners with this national work group to ask hospitals to utilize their purchasing power to signal to the marketplace that they support the development of a local, sustainable agricultural sector, thereby supporting economic development and improving public health.

• Directs the Healthy Food, Healthier Future Project - This project works with the health care sector to increase access to safe, healthy, affordable foods in Detroit while restoring the infrastructure to support local/ regional, sustainable foods.

• Member of the Michigan Green Health Care Committee, an advisory committee to Michigan Health & Hospital Association - The Ecology Center plays a lead role in coordinating the efforts of this advisory committee of hospital members who recognize the interconnection between health and the environment and strive to be role models by implementing innovative initiatives.

• Offers Healthy Food in Health Care assistance - The program offers assistance to the health care sector in convening and implementing healthy food initiatives.

Meet Our Staff

Hillary M. Bisnett, Healthy Food in Health Care Program Director, joined the Ecology Center staff in April 2009 to leverage the health care sector’s institutional purchasing power to support the development of a sustainable food system. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Business from Aquinas College and her passion for local, sustainable food comes from growing up on a family farm in southwest Michigan. Before coming to the Ecology Center, Hillary worked as a consultant at Metro Health Hospital in Grand Rapids. She coordinated the hospital’s farmers market, Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge efforts and monitored the nearly 1-acre green roof and natural landscaping surrounding the campus. Most recently, she completed her Certificate in Organic Gardening from Washtenaw Community College and is now pursuing a culinary arts degree.

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Kathryn L. Savoie, Ph.D., Detroit Community Health Director, joined the Ecology Center in April 2012 to expand programming in Detroit under the Healthy Food, Healthier Future Project. Kathryn is a veteran community organizer and has led of a number of major health, human rights and environmental justice campaigns in the Detroit area over the past 20 years. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Michigan, after receiving her bachelor’s degree at Virginia Tech. She is active in the community gardening movement in Detroit, and is an authorized presenter of the Climate Reality Project, trained directly by former vice president Al Gore.

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