Dr. Broccoli Says Eat Your Veggies… for Good Health and Thriving Farms
“I scream. You scream. We all scream for green beans,” reads the billboard along Highway 880 in Oakland, California. The sign is not advertising a grocery store or a particular brand of frozen vegetables. It’s part of Thrive, a campaign by the Kaiser Permanente health maintenance organization to encourage good health practices. Dr. Preston Maring, a physician administrator and Ob-Gyn at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland, provided an impetus for the Thrive campaign when he started one of the nation’s first hospital-based farmers’ markets at the Oakland Medical Center in 2003. His goal: promote healthy eating by connecting Kaiser Permanente employees and patients with farmers who sell locally grown produce. The movement has taken off. There are now more than 30 farmers’ markets at Kaiser Permanente hospitals in five states (Hawaii, Georgia, Colorado, California and Oregon). More markets are in the works.
[AFT’s Agenda 2007 includes policy recommendations to promote improved diets and healthy eating. Recognizing that farm and food policy should be linked more strongly with national health and nutrition goals, Agenda 2007 proposes that federal government programs should promote healthier diets by supporting farmers’ markets, expanding access to specialty crops and locally grown food, and facilitating institutional purchases of local and regional agricultural products.]
Q: When did you first come up with the idea of starting a farmers’ market at your hospital?
About four years ago, I was wondering why the only vendors we had here in the hallways of the hospital sold jewelry and other things that have nothing to do with our health services. I just wondered what we could do for the employees and patients that would be more consistent with our mission. One of the backbones of Kaiser Permanente is prevention. It’s good for the health plan and good for the people. It’s good for everyone.
I like to cook. I like farmers’ markets. I had this thought: what would happen if you brought the farmers’ market to where people work? I looked on the Internet and I didn’t see any farmers’ markets that were based at employment sites. John Silveira of the Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association was running 20 markets in the Bay Area. I told John my idea. He said, “Your mission and my mission are the same. We’re both trying to improve the health of the community.”
I thought, OK, how am I going to get this done? I talked to the CEO and CFO of the hospital, public relations, legal and community relations. We reassured everybody that we weren’t going to compete with anybody else. I wanted the market to sustain itself financially. We tried to avoid any problems. We don’t sell milk, fish or meat products because employees don’t have refrigeration at work. On May 16, 2003, we opened here with six vendors set up on the sidewalk. It was like a block party. The farmers were very happy. The same farmers have been coming since we opened. The market took off and has continued to be successful here.
What led to the expansion of the markets to other hospital locations?
The markets were so consistent with Kaiser Permanente’s mission: the simple concept that healthy food is the fundamental building block of good health. By the end of June 2006, there were 30 markets. I had direct input in getting about 15 of them started. I helped people think through all of the issues. The idea of having the market worked well for farmers and was fun for employees and the surrounding communities. Often there was somebody passionate about it at a hospital. We started a market at the Richmond Kaiser Permanente hospital. They expanded their outreach and took the market to a nearby low-income community with limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Some people in those areas said thanks to Kaiser Permanente, they are now eating fresh fruits and vegetables.
A survey of over 1,200 people at 17 markets done last August showed that 70 percent of people who had shopped at our markets said that because they have a market at their workplace, they are eating more fruits and vegetables. And 63 percent said they are eating more kinds of fruits and vegetables. My theory that says “making it easy for people to shop at farmers’ markets may encourage fruit and vegetable consumption” seems to be working. It’s hard to walk by a fresh peach in August and ignore it. I had a woman tell me she lost 30 pounds since shopping at the farmers’ market. I’ve got lots of anecdotal evidence of people trying new foods and sharing recipes back. I’m recognized these days as “Doctor Broccoli.”
You recognized that without farmers, there would be no healthy food.
The main focus right off the bat was “could this be good for farmers?” Without the farmers we don’t get good fruits and vegetables. It’s clear that farmers’ markets don’t survive just because they are fun, but because they support the farmers financially. For the sake of the farmers, I’m trying to encourage the right size of market relative to the daily number of employees and patients and the right location in the usual foot traffic pathways.
Right now in California, there are more farmers looking for farmers’ markets than there are farmers’ markets. With another farmers’ market association, we established a Kaiser Permanente-sponsored farmers’ market at an auto factory. We are exploring other worksite markets that can hopefully introduce even more people to fresh fruits and vegetables and be a focal point for health education.
I’m working right now on a series of other ways to extend the farmers’ reach to help with their economic viability. Seven thousand meals a day are served to Kaiser Permanente members in 19 hospitals in our Northern California region. Two thousand of those meals are special diets. Currently, produce and fruit in our hospitals come from the global supply chain. Where possible, our dietitians are writing for seasonal menus that will allow us to source more of our food from local small- and mid-size farms practicing sustainable agriculture. We’re working with the Community Alliance for Family Farmers, a California nonprofit, to create a consortium of Central Valley farms that can source our hospitals’ inpatient food system for the 5,000 regular diet meals a day. We hope to be able to help these farmers by giving them a guaranteed source of income.
You’re spreading the message of healthy eating while helping local farmers stay in business.
I’m trying to create more business and demand for what the California farmer can provide us. If I go to a farmer and say, “let me link you up with this college or factory or office building,” all of a sudden we can find more customers. If I can increase their sales and double it from what they normally make at the markets, than we’re helping support the small family farmer and expanding their reach.
We have started the equivalent of a CSA food delivery to help make our farmers’ markets more viable in the long-term. Employees can buy pre-paid subscriptions for the delivery of food boxes of organic produce from the farmers who come to our markets. We’ve prepared and created a Web site where people can sign up to receive a CSA delivery at work. Kaiser Permanente has four to five thousand people working downtown. I hope to get at least 200 hundred to sign up for a weekly food box delivery at work.
All I’m doing is making the connections between people. If I can leverage Kaiser Permanente’s size and influence in the community to make the connection between all of us in urban areas who eat everyday with farmers in rural areas who make the food, everybody benefits.
How does this all fit in with your original mission?
Thrive has turned out to be the branding for our whole company nationwide. The most fundamentally important thing we can do is help people prevent disease and thrive. Our model is to have good fruits and vegetables available to people directly where they work. The ultimate goal: use every single acre possible to cultivate and grow food using sustainable techniques. We’ve got millions of people buying food from all over the world, when it’s being grown 20 miles away. As a society, we’re not making the connection. I’m trying to show that any organization can do this. It doesn’t have to be a hospital. This just happens to be where I work.
Dr. Maring sends out a farmers’ market update with healthy recipes featuring seasonal, locally grown produce. To subscribe to the weekly e-newsletter, visit kp.org/farmersmarketrecipes.
