Healthier America...

Written by: Kenneth-Michael

There stationed at the corner of Baltimore and Redwood Street is a McDonald’s fast food restaurant, local deli-carryout, and just down a few feet a Starbucks coffee house. On that busy intersection, you also have the congestion of traffic coming in from downtown Baltimore. It is 12 o’clock, noon, which means it is lunch-time for those who flood that intersection, dressed in nurses’ scrubs and doctors’ lab coats. That is because many are coming from the University of Maryland Hospital, which is immediately south of the congestion on Paca street. But, on the opposite side of the street, across from the McDonald’s, in the tree shaded plaza of University Hospital, a local community farmer’s market is stationed, sponsored by the hospital, with all the right makings for a healthy lunch-time meal.

Across the United States, thousands of hospitals have started sponsoring their own farmer’s market in support of the National Initiative to a Healthier America. Even First Lady Michelle Obama has decided to get involved; back in March she started growing her own garden on the South end of the White House lawn.

Denise Choinier, a register nurse at the University of Maryland Hospital/Medical Center who runs the farmer’s market, says that it was started to support healthier foods and healthcare, which is a national initiative that has been driven by Healthcare Without Harm. The proximity of the market mainly benefits the staff, patients, and visitors of the Medical Center, but it is opened to the surrounding community. The market, which is only open on Tuesdays, begun on May 5th, 2009 and will likely run until the fall, says Choinier. Offering a variety of foods from locally grown fruits and vegetables, fresh, artisan cheeses, marmalades and jams, and ice cream, many of the vendors and farmers come twice month and while others vend every Tuesday.

To view the full article, click the link below:

http://etmmagazine.info/future/2009/08/articles/2009_08_healthieramerica.html