Southwestern Vermont Medical Center feeds the hungry with surplus food

Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC)in xxx  works with a local nonprofit called The Grateful Hearts to glean extra food ingredients from area farms and businesses, then uses them to prepare meals for area social service outlets in the hospital kitchen employing hospital kitchen staff, according to an article on the Food Management website.

Between July 2016 and the end of 2019, the program has produced 61,365 meals.

The hospital has the staff and kitchen facilities to produce bulk food and Grateful Hearts has transportation for the meals, plus its contacts with farmers, grocery stores and food processors to source the excess ingredients. 

The  hospital tries to incorporate production of the meals for Grateful Hearts into its regular workload “so we don’t add labor to the job.” For instance, potatoes for the meal program are diced along with those for in-house use so the task doesn’t have to be set up separately, wasting time.

Read the article.