{"id":28177,"date":"2017-03-15T12:27:01","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T16:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=28177"},"modified":"2017-03-15T12:37:25","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T16:37:25","slug":"community-living-garden-to-donate-fresh-seasonal-produce-to-huntsvilles-hospital-for-second-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/community-living-garden-to-donate-fresh-seasonal-produce-to-huntsvilles-hospital-for-second-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Living garden to donate fresh seasonal produce to Huntsville’s hospital for second year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supplied photos<\/em><\/p>\n

You can’t ‘beet’ a partnership like this one. In 2013, Margo Cybulski, Ryan O\u2019Connor, Nancy Weber and Brenda Wood from Community Living Huntsville (CLH) began growing vegetables in a plot at the Huntsville Fair Grounds. At first, Cybulski, O’Connor and Wood were taking home their harvest but last year decided to do something inclusive to help their community instead.<\/p>\n

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When they approached staff at Huntsville District Memorial Hospital about donating vegetables to be used in patient meals, the answer was a resounding yes. The two groups got together and came up with a plan for what would most benefit patients and in May 2016 the CLH gardeners got to work with seeds, seedlings and manure donated by Huntsville Home Hardware.<\/p>\n

Every week, whichever vegetables were ready to harvest were delivered to Chef Murray Reid and the food and nutrition services staff at the hospital. A steady parade of lettuce, kale, beans, tomatoes, peppers, celery, cabbage, onions, beets and carrots made their way to the hospital’s kitchen throughout the summer to be turned into delicious meals for patients.<\/p>\n

“The food and nutrition services staff were very proud to be serving the produce,” said Bev Leslie-Suddaby, the hospital’s manager of support services. “Our patients were just thrilled to be eating local produce and said they could taste the difference with the fresh produce in our meals. Patients are eating their food, it tastes really good, and there\u2019s very little waste.”<\/p>\n

Leslie-Suddaby adds that patients are interested in where the food is coming from, making it a point of conversation. “It tastes good, looks good and it\u2019s a great partnership that we can talk about with our patients.”<\/p>\n

The hospital’s food and nutrition services staff adapts their menu to use the produce that CLH delivers as soon as possible. “We set a goal to use at least 30 per cent of our food budget on local food \u2013 we work really hard at that,” says Leslie-Suddaby. “What they donate to us certainly helps.”<\/p>\n\n\t\t