Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General) and North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) today announced a partnership with The Food Project – North Shore to support healthy food choices for residents of the North Shore and engage young people in sustainable agriculture.
As part of the planned opening of the Mass General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care in Danvers in June, NSMC and Mass General have agreed to donate to The Food Project’s North Shore programs each time someone visits the center’s website (www.massgeneralnorthshore.org) and clicks on The Food Project donation link. The donation will be capped at $25,000.
"We embrace this opportunity to join forces with our community partners for both a healthy and ecologically friendly cause,” said Peter Slavin, MD, President of Massachusetts General Hospital. “The multiple benefits of The Food Project are valuable, and we salute their forward-thinking goals of sustainability."
Robert Norton, President and CEO of North Shore Medical Center, added, “We are pleased to support The Food Project, which is working to make fresh and healthy foods more available while employing young people in local farming programs.”
The Food Project – North Shore grows pesticide-free fruits and vegetables on sustainable farms in Lynn and Beverly, donating half of the food it produces to food pantries and shelters and selling the rest through farmers’ markets and other sources. In addition to recruiting volunteers, it hires young people from the region to farm the land using sustainable farming methods. Beginning this spring, the program will expand to include a new six-acre farm in Ipswich.
“This is a wonderful way for the Mass General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care to give back to the community and to support a great organization,” said John Auerbach, Commissioner of Public Health for Massachusetts. “Getting people to eat better and move more is the goal of the Commonwealth’s Mass In Motion initiative. By supporting prevention, through the promotion of healthy diets, Mass General/North Shore’s support of The Food Project shows its commitment to the good health of North Shore residents goes beyond providing great medical care. I applaud them on their efforts.”
According to Margaret Williams, Executive Director of The Food Project, “Our philosophy is to bring together youth and adults from all backgrounds and abilities and give them the opportunity to contribute to society by growing food for the hungry and caring for the land. The support of Massachusetts General Hospital and North Shore Medical Center is incredibly important in sustaining and growing this work on the North Shore.”
Currently under construction on Endicott Street in Danvers, the Mass General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care builds on a long history of collaboration between NSMC and Mass General. This state-of-the-art medical outpatient facility will include suites for minimally invasive outpatient surgery, a breast health center, and advanced diagnostic imaging services. It will also be the new home of the Mass General/North Shore Cancer Center, which will be relocated from its current location in nearby Peabody, where it has provided comprehensive cancer services since 1994.
In addition to seeing and reading about the new outpatient center online, visitors to the center’s website will be invited to support the work of The Food Project – North Shore by clicking a link on the center’s website. All that is necessary to spur the donation is to click on The Food Project donation link; visitors are not required to provide any personal information nor will they be added to a mailing list without their consent in order for their visit to be counted for donation purposes.
NSMC (North Shore Medical Center) is a multi-site health system headquartered in Salem, MA, which includes NSMC Salem Hospital, NSMC Union Hospital in Lynn, NSMC North Shore Children’s Hospital, NSMC Cancer Center, NSMC Heart Center, NSMC Women’s Center, and the physician network known as North Shore Physicians Group.
Massachusetts General Hospital, established in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, where nearly all its active staff physicians hold faculty appointments. The 900-bed hospital offers sophisticated diagnostic and therapeutic care in virtually every specialty and subspecialty of medicine and surgery. Each year the MGH admits more than 45,000 inpatients and records more than 1.5 million visits in its extensive outpatient programs at its main campus and off-site facilities. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of nearly $500 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, cutaneous biology, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, transplantation biology and photomedicine The MGH has consistently been named one of the nation’s top three hospitals by US News and World Report.
Since 1991, The Food Project has built a national model of engaging young people in personal and social change through sustainable agriculture. The Food Project - North Shore is working to spread The Food Project's vision of making personal and social change through sustainable agriculture on the North Shore of Massachusetts. It hires youth from all parts of the North Shore to grow fruits and vegetables using sustainable methods in urban and suburban communities. This food is distributed through farmers markets and to hunger relief organizations throughout the North Shore.
