A group of San Francisco hospitals are working to make hospital food tastier and healthy for the patients and the environment, according to an article on the Guardian website.

The Moffitt Café is the main dining hall of the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center. The nutrition and food services department at UCSF has been working to renovate the menu to include eating choices that are tasty, healthy and good for the environment.

The medical center has become a leader in a growing movement to add more fresh, organic and sustainable foods to their patient and cafeteria trays. Seven years ago, UCSF, along with several other San Francisco Bay Area healthcare systems, joined with Physicians for Social Responsibility, a nonprofit organization, to brainstorm ways to change hospital food, the article said.

The group realized that, by pooling their purchasing power, they could prod the mainstream food distribution chain to include more sustainably produced items.

Part of the solution has also been buying higher-quality ingredients in smaller amounts. The hospitals trimmed conventional meat purchases by at least 20 percent in 12 months. They then used the savings to buy sustainably raised meats and produce, which are often pricier.

Read the article.