Healthy Fridge brings quality local food to healthcare staff in Eindhoven

The busy hours caused by COVID-19 made healthy food at hospitals a luxury

An initiative by the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant brings healthy and local food to the personnel of Catharina Hospital Eindhoven 24/7. The hospital will receive its second Healthy Fridge, which is expected to significantly improve the hospital staff's days at work.

A twofold purpose

As of this week, the employees and visitors of the Catharina Hospital of Eindhoven will have a non-stop access to healthy food - delicious salads, poke bowls, wraps, yoghurt, nuts and fruit, informs FoodUp! Brabant, the social innovation Agriculture and Food team of the province of Noord-Brabant.

The initiative aims to mitigate a problem that became particularly acute during the coronavirus rush – namely the access to healthy food in the context of limited time for breaks and irregular shifts. The initiative has an additional upshot – it stimulates local agriculture as purchasing food locally means a shorter production line and higher profits for Brabant food suppliers.

As Elies Lemkes-Straver, Member of the Provincial Executive for Agriculture, Food and Nature puts it “We find it valuable that health care personnel are given more options to eat healthily at any given time of the day. And considering my portfolio, I think it is great that the products from the Healthy Fridge largely come from Brabant.”

The provincial authority provides pre-financing for the Healthy Fridge through the FoodUp Brabant program. Healthy Fridge is also looking to collaborate with the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS) to develop an algorithm that will enable the purchase of meals to take place as efficiently as possible and to minimize food waste.

This is in fact the second Healthy Fridge for the Catharina hospital. The first one proved so popular among the staff that the institution requested a second one. The Catharina hospital is committed to sustainable employability of its staff which includes supporting their healthy choices, including nutrition.

The healthy fridge is certainly a move in this direction. Nurse Marina van Gennip completely agrees: “I try not only to take good care of the patients but also myself. The Healthy Fridge has healthy food … which is very important, especially at night and I use it a lot.”