Food growing in hospitals
Demand for allotments is at an all-time high. Waiting lists around the country top 100,000 people, as would-be gardeners are keen to reap the benefits of outdoor exercise, cheap organic produce and the chance to reconnect with the land and the food supply chain.
With allotments so hard to come by, taking advantage of available space on NHS sites to cultivate fruit and vegetables is incredibly valuable. Grow Your Own initiatives can provide service users, staff and the surrounding community with food plots that would be otherwise inaccessible.
The mental health benefits of gardening are broad and diverse, [with] significant reductions in depression and anxiety, improved social functioning and… opportunities for vocational development.
The King’s Fund
You can grow fruits and vegetables in even the smallest of spaces. Just a few square metres can offer up immense benefits including fresh, organic produce for hospital kitchens; therapeutic gardening sessions; opportunities for learning new skills; and green spaces for staff and service users to relax in.
Tomatoes, strawberries, salad leaves and herbs grow well in containers, so you can have miniature Grow Your Own areas in courtyards or balconies. Get large pots if you can; you’ll fit more in and they’ll also need less frequent watering. You can also train beans to grow up a wall, saving on space. Larger spaces can incorporate raised beds, which can be adapted to suit people with reduced mobility as well as wheelchair users. Fruit trees and bushes generally need less regular maintenance than annual vegetable crops. They can provide shade and add height to your green space, as well as attracting bees and butterflies. The spring blossoms will be a welcome site for staff, patients and visitors.
Healthcare sites with ‘grow your own’ projects
Guild Lodge, a secure mental health hospital in Preston, launched their ‘grow your own’ project in 2013. As well as providing fresh, organic fruit and veg for the hospital kitchen, it has given dozens of patients the opportunity to gain horticultural and cooking skills. Tending the site is a good way for service users and staff to boost their physical activity, and allows them to spend time in green space. Some service users have been offered regular, paid work on the allotment site, and others have gained qualifications in horticulture, a good preparation for life after leaving hospital. The site also provides a vegetable growing space for community members.
Photo: Vicki Brown / Centre for Sustainable Healthcare 2021. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
At Southmead Hospital in Bristol, our Nature Recovery Ranger Phoebe Webster has been leading lunchtime Grow Your Own sessions for staff, on the site’s vegetable beds and in the polytunnels. They’ve learned about composting and made a scarecrow, and visiting groups of children have planted their own broad beans. High above, the roof terrace leading out from the staff café has been turned into a thriving herb garden, within easy reach for the hospital chefs.
In built-up South London, Lambeth GP Food Co-op makes the most of even the tiniest of spaces, installing raised beds and fruit bushes in alleyways and a local restaurant garden. These mini allotments are a haven for people living with chronic health conditions, including diabetes, arthritis, anxiety and depression, giving them a place to socialise, learn, harvest food and have a sense of purpose.
Why grow food on healthcare sites?
The organic produced harvested from such sites is a source of healthy produce for service users and can reduce costs for the NHS. When dealing with ‘food metres’ instead of food miles, and with ingredients that are not treated with pesticides and fertilisers or wrapped in plastic, this food actually leaves a positive environmental impact, rather than a heavy carbon footprint.
It can encourage service users to exercise and to socialise with other patients and provide staff with a source of free or low-cost food. A kitchen garden also promotes wider sustainable practices on hospital sites, as kitchen waste can be composted, packaging is reduced, and rainwater can be harvested for watering. Surplus produce can be shared with staff or sold to the wider community. It can also be donated to organisations such as FareShare and certain homeless charities, which, unlike many food banks, are able to accept fresh fruit and vegetables.