A partnership between Stanford Health Care and Stanford Medicine Children’s Health
Sohayla Eldeeb
B.S. in Biology and Masters Student in
Community Health and Research Prevention
Stanford Department of Biology and School of Medicine
Project
Supporting the Stanford Health Care Food System: Demonstrating the benefits of healthy food on patient outcomes
Project Description
Hospitalization can be seen as a key moment of potential intervention to educate patients around the significant impact of diet on health. This team will evaluate the carbon footprint of the food that is served to inpatients and evaluate opportunities to further reduce environmental impacts and the carbon footprint of patient meals.
Stanford Health Care Food Services department employs climate-smart best practices such as shifting the center of the plate to focus recipes on grains and vegetables instead of meat, and by providing plant-based alternatives. In addition, Food Services sets local and sustainable food purchase targets, achieving a 12% spend on local food purchases and a 30% spend on sustainable food and beverage in 2022. This project will use LCA data to evaluate the carbon footprint of patient menus and evaluate potential opportunities for improvement such as ingredient or process changes.
Impact
Collaborators
Dr. Christopher Gardner, Advisor
Director of Nutrition Studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and
the Rehnborg Farquhar Professor of Medicine at Stanford University
Achievements & Affiliations
Awarded the Plant-Based Diet Initiative 2022 Seed Funding grant
Student leader for the Stanford Healthcare Consulting Group
Working with Community-Academic Partnerships for Clean Air in Stockton
Our Sustainability Champions
Stanford Medicine is delighted to provide visibility and recognition to these industry-leading health care sustainability champions.