At Trinity Health, building trust and improving the patient experience comes with a side of hospital-grown vegetables and herbs.
The Livonia, Mich.-based system owns and operates multiple hospital-based farms in its 25-state footprint as part of its Food is Medicine strategy. These farms allow physicians to prescribe free produce to patients experiencing food insecurity or who struggle to eat healthy.
“Each of our regional health ministries operates within a unique community, so our Food is Medicine programs vary by location, while keeping a consistent throughline: Access to nutritious food is foundational to health,” Dan Roth, MD, executive vice president and COO at Trinity Health, told Becker’s. “By integrating food access into clinical care pathways, and reinforcing it with social care supports, we’re helping patients manage chronic illness more effectively.”
In fiscal 2025, the system invested $2.9 billion in community impact programming, including screening more than 1 million outpatients and 137,000 inpatients for food insecurity, housing and transportation. System leaders track how many patients are screened for food insecurity and social needs, and how many are connected to community resources or Trinity’s Food is Medicine-related programs.
Food is Medicine programs look different in each region.
“In some locations we are serving communities where patients live in neighborhoods with limited or no access to grocery stores selling fresh, healthy foods while in other areas transportation is a greater barrier,” Dr. Roth said. “It is a complex issue with no one-size-fits-all solution”
Ypsilanti, Mich.-based Trinity Health Ann Arbor has one of the oldest hospital-based farms in the country. The program started in 2010 and has since expanded to Trinity Oakland and Trinity Muskegon. Last year, the three farms grew 205 varieties of vegetables and herbs across its locations, and harvested around 30,000 pounds of food last year, with a value of just under $150,000.
The food is donated to four clinical partners throughout its Produce to Patient program. These clinics receive weekly food deliveries from the farm, which allows providers to identify patients with food insecurity and hand them a bag of produce during their visit.
“The idea is that the food grown on the farm is a tool for our providers to build trust and create a more human-centered experience with their patients during social determinants of health screening,” Katelyn Smoger, director of Food is Medicine and The Farm at Trinity Health Michigan, told Becker’s. “People often assume that food from a hospital-based farm ends up in food service or on patient trays, but we’ve found it far more impactful to put it in the hands of our providers so they can have that real conversation. We hear great feedback from both the produce recipients and the providers themselves, who are seeing real improvement in their job satisfaction. They’re not just handing out a flyer and hoping a pantry is still open — they’re providing real, tangible assistance to people where they need it.”
The farms and its network are overseen by Ms. Smoger and her team, but the land itself is cultivated by farmers employed by the hospital.
The farm program uses multiple avenues to get food to patients:
- The hospital runs on-campus farm stands and markets that allow the community to access produce. They accept SNAP, prescription-for-health programs and are now Medicaid reimbursable in the state of Michigan.
- Food program coordinators, who are the most clinically integrated members, accept referrals from within the EHR and connect patients to the program. They also lead the hospital-based food pantries that serve patients immediately.
- The state system has a flagship program called Farm Share: a 36-week Community Supported Agriculture program. Each week, the team connects with 35 farms across the state to pull together boxes that have six to eight different produce items. Patients and community members then receive a newsletter telling them what produce is in the box, who grew it and healthy recipes to try with the ingredients.
These food programs have had a big result on provider satisfaction and patient health. The Farm Share program alone had 900 members last year, and more than half received food at no cost. The program also saw a 145% improvement in food security in program participants.
“This is a model that works. It invests in our local food system, in our communities, and in our patients in a way that is genuinely moving the needle on preventative healthcare,” Ms. Smoger said.
The program is looking to expand to more clinics and pilot a community care hub network, where Trinity Health Michigan will partner with smaller community-based organizations to contract directly with a Medicaid plan. The goal would be to ensure an uptake in services across the state and ensure patients are receiving benefits from providers in their communities, Ms. Smoger said.
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