Patients at H+H/Lincoln, Metropolitan and Woodhull hospitals will receive culturally diverse and plant-based meals as part of the city’s new nutritional care system that kicked off in March of this year.
The mayor of the city, Eric Adams, and the executive director of Health + Hospitals (H+H) of the city of New York, Dr. Mitchell H. Katz, announced the main food options for the patients’ dinner.
“When it comes to preventing diet-related chronic disease, it’s been found that it’s not a problem with our DNA, it’s what we eat,” said Mayor Adams. “Since January, we have implemented the plan called ‘The Power of Plants on Fridays’ in schools, with fresh products and which has become the only municipal emergency food system in the country,” said the official.
The plan applied to schools is now transferred to hospital centers and according to Mayor Adams, the coverage of good nutrition points to the Plant-Based Lifestyle Medicine Clinics system from which public hospitals in the five boroughs will benefit.
“Now, we is proud to announce the successful launch and expansion of plant-based lunch and dinner presets across all H+H sites. This revolutionary program is already changing lives, empowering patients to take control of their own health and further establishing New York City as a leader in preventive medicine,” added Adams.
“In the event that we or a loved one have to be in the hospital, we should know that the food served will be comforting, tasty and healthy,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom.
The doctor Mitchell Katz highlighted the value of keeping track of food to prevent chronic diseases. “As a primary care physician, I talk to all of my patients about the importance of a healthy diet and how it can help prevent or treat chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease,” said Dr. Katz.
Each year, H+H serves around 3 million meals for lunch and dinner. Roughly half of all hospitalized patients are eligible for plant-based dishes, and 60 percent have chosen them since the default plant-based program was launched, which which contributes to approximately 864,000 plant-based meals being served per year. It is also based on the Meatless Mondays initiative, launched in 2019, when Adams was the Brooklyn Borough President.