In 2014, 11.5-acre St. Luke's Rodale Institute Organic Farm provided patients, visitors and staff of the St. Luke's University Health Network in Bethlehem, Pa., with more than 44,000 pounds of organic produce.
The farm—which came out of a partnership between St. Luke’s and the Rodale Institute, an organization that studies the link between healthy soil, healthy food and healthy people—distributes organically grown local produce to all six St. Luke’s hospitals for in-patient and cafeteria meals.
Since then, farmers and hospital chefs have determined ways to make the most out of their hyper-local partnership. Click through for five lessons they’ve learned along the way.