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Medical center farm market offers good start to good eating

Photo

Photo by Kyle Bursaw

Jessica Pohl helps her grandfather Gordon Petkoff weigh out produce for the Creekside Farms stand just before 2 p.m. when the the Farmer's Market in tte Aurora parking lot opened on Tuesday.

Photo

Photo by Kyle Bursaw

Nick Smith sets up the display of produce for the Fayrehaven Farm stand at the Farmer's Market in Elkhorn, Wis on Tuesday.

ELKHORN — Ali Ortiz of Elkhorn browsed a colorful spread of fresh fruits and vegetables at a small farmers market at Aurora Lakeland Medical Center on Tuesday afternoon, her 1 1/2-year-old daughter, Hazelynn, in tow.

Tomatoes, peppers, beans, broccoli and corn spilled out of baskets. Blueberries and peaches filled small containers. Bread, honey and jam dotted the tabletops.

Ortiz, 20, who receives Women, Infants and Children benefits, is looking to incorporate more healthy foods into her and her daughter's diets. The people who administer WIC benefits recommended she check out the new farmers market, she said.

She bought corn, cucumbers and peaches Tuesday afternoon.

The small farmers market is part of Aurora Health Care's new focus on "patient-centered care," said Shelby Maier, supervisor of health information at the hospital in Elkhorn.

"We want to make a personal experience for our patients. We want to have an organization where people come and have a good experience," she said. "And one of our focuses is on nutrition and the role it plays in health and wellness."

A committee gathered ideas of ways the hospital could help employees, patients and visitors make healthy food choices, Maier said. People suggested offering more food choices to people after normal cafeteria hours and putting healthier foods in vending machines, she said.

But the committee liked best the idea of offering employees, patients and visitors the opportunity to buy locally grown, reasonably priced produce to help them maintain a healthy diet, Maier said.

Four local vendors offer fresh fruits and vegetables along with meat, eggs and bread late Tuesday afternoons in the parking lot across the street from the hospital, which is near the Walworth County complex on County NN. The small farmers market caters to county and hospital employees who are on break, arriving for a shift or leaving to go home, as well as visitors to county offices and the hospital, giving them a chance to pick up fresh produce to use in preparing a meal that night, Maier said.

"The response has been just fabulous," she said.

Maier said Aurora is among the first hospitals in the country to offer a farmers market to its employees, patients and visitors.

"We are seeing a trend nationwide that health care organizations are looking at providing this service as well as incorporating locally grown produce in their cafeterias," she said.

Given its success, the health-care provider could expand the service to its other clinics throughout the county, Maier said.