Healthcare

Serve Healthy Hospital Meals

The best hospital food starts with good ingredients sourced with care. More and more, hospitals and healthcare sites like yours are choosing this path, aligning their values—local sourcing, equity and diversity, climate, health, and beyond—with their food purchases.

The result? Patients and staff gaining access to the type of food that nourishes people and the planet. Hospital food they want to eat.

Expanding access to delicious, nutritious food supports your staff and patients to make healthy decisions daily.

The Common Market makes good, local food sourcing easy–providing you access to options that are full of flavor and nutrients, while creating opportunities to support a thriving regional food system! We use our 15 years as a nonprofit food distributor to bring local food straight from the farm to your site. We take care of the backend logistics, so you can focus on healthy flavorful options for your patients and staff.

Why Local?

Local food creates benefits for your hospital by meeting patient and staff demand and aligning with internal purchasing policies. Local sourcing connects you to a network of small and medium-sized farms and ranches in your region that are committed to regenerative farming practices and producing high-quality food. It provides an opportunity to bring equity into your food service operation.

Your choice to buy local creates a wave of impact. When you purchase from our network of local farmers, you support values along:

  • Local economies
  • Farms led by people of color, women, veterans
  • Workers’ rights and wages
  • Animal welfare
  • Consumer health and nutrition
  • Regenerative agriculture, soil health, biodiversity
  • And more!

Farm Stand Hydroponic Greens
The Common Market Is A Reliable Streamlined Source Of Local Hospital Meals 2

The Common Market is a Reliable, Streamlined Source of Local Hospital Meals

At the Common Market, we make local sourcing easy and reliable by:

  • Picking up the food from the farmer and delivering it to your site
  • Creating strict food safety protocols including HACCP plans, recall plans, and everyday quality checks
  • Streamlining payment process with flexible billing plans designed to work for you
  • Maintaining our approved vendor status with major food service providers and having the agility to work with independent providers
  • Providing guidance around best practices for incorporating values, like local, diversity and equity, and climate, into your purchasing contracts
  • Including farm, city, and state of origin information on every box for verification and reporting purposes–we make it easy to hit your sustainability and values-based purchasing goals
  • Providing Impact Certificates that illustrate the number of farms supported each year, along with pounds of food purchased and dollars spent within the local economy

How to Make your Hospital Food Local

There are just a few simple steps to follow to bring local food to your healthcare site. Here’s how it works:

  1. Connect with our team–simply fill out our interest form below!
  2. Create a partnership between your hospital and The Common Market
  3. Browse our local availability list and delivery plan for your region
  4. Place your order of healthy, local food
  5. Receive your order delivered directly to your site
  6. Use The Common Market marketing materials to promote local food and track your impact
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Farm-to-Hospital Possibilities

The Common Market offers a variety of programs to integrate local food into your healthcare site. Possibilities for collaboration include:

  • Wholesale Purchasing - As a partner with The Common Market, you’ll have access to our Availability List which includes seasonal produce, a year-round selection of items like hydroponic lettuces, whole grains, flours, rice, and a growing selection of dairy, proteins, and value-added products. Select the items that fit your purchasing needs, then use them to craft healthy meals for your staff and patients.
  • Local Farm Stands - Host a Farm Stand at your site to increase access to local food. This completely flexible program lets you choose when your farm stand runs, how often, and what local products are best suited for your people. We provide planning support, promotional materials, and delivery of the freshest, tastiest food from your region.
  • Farm-Fresh Box Program - Use the Farm-Fresh Box Program to encourage healthy habits outside of the hospital walls. This is a safe food access solution for both your healthcare staff and communities at large. We deliver individualized boxes to your site, each containing 5-7 locally-grown fruits and vegetables, the perfect take-home offering, providing about a week’s worth of nutritious meals.
  • Harvest of the Month - Get your hospital community excited to eat local through our Harvest of the Month featured item. Our Harvest of the Month program spotlights a different seasonal produce item each month. In addition to providing the food, we also give you product-specific, point-of-sale marketing to help boost the signal about your local food initiatives

Our Healthcare Partners

We work with hospitals and healthcare sites across the country to incorporate local sourcing into their food procurement strategies. Our partners include programs managed by major food service providers and self-operated institutions including:

  • Morrison Healthcare, various sites (GA, TX)
  • Morrison Healthcare at Hackensack Meridian Health (NJ)
  • RWJBarnabas Health (NJ)
  • Emory University Hospital (GA)
  • Aramark at Lankenau Medical Center (PA)
  • Aramark at MD Anderson Cancer Center (TX)
  • Temple University Hospital (PA)
  • and more!
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Case Study: The Farm Stand at Lankenau Medical Center

Lankenau Medical Center, located in Wynnewood, PA, is committed to the holistic health and well-being of its entire community. The hospital prioritizes the critical link between diet and health outcomes, and works to ensure that all of its patients, staff and guests have access to wholesome food. Learn how they fostered a healthy food environment with a Common Market Farm Stand.

Read Report

A Randomized Trial to Encourage Healthy Eating Through Workplace Delivery of Fresh Food

In a randomized study, researchers at The University of Pennsylvania found that recipients of The Common Market's fruit and vegetable boxes exhibited effective behavior change strategies that are correlated to lower rates of diet-related chronic disease like obesity and diabetes.

Read Report

Let’s Work Together

The Common Market is committed to your local sourcing success. Our friendly and educated team is here to partner with you every step of the way. Connect with us today to learn how to make local sourcing part of your hospital food program.