NewYork-Presbyterian/Hudson Valley Hospital will use an approximately $100,000 federal grant to launch a shuttle service from downtown Peekskill to the hospital”™s Cortlandt Manor campus for shoppers at its farmers market, which opens May 12.
In its fourth season, the farmers market will operate from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month from May through November. Hospital officials said more than a dozen vendors will offer a variety of products from fresh produce to gourmet specialty items on the hospital campus.
John Federspiel, president of NewYork-Presbyterian/Hudson Valley Hospital, said the hospital will use a $99,899 grant awarded last year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the transportation service to make the market more accessible to the community. The grant also will fund the purchase of an electronic benefit transfer machine that will allow farmers to accept government Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and make fresh foods more affordable for lower-income residents.
“Half the battle of getting people to eat healthier is to make wholesome food more affordable and more readily available to those who might not have access to it,”™”™ Federspiel said.
The new initiative is part of the hospital”™s Harvest for Health program to prevent chronic disease and positively influence a patient”™s recovery. The program includes an organic garden, the year-old Chef Peter X. Kelly Teaching Kitchen and a regionally sourced food service for patients and employees.
NewYork-Presbyterian/Hudson Valley Hospital officials said the hospital was one of 10 organizations in the state and the only one in Westchester and Putnam counties to be awarded some of the $52 million distributed nationally for such programs through the 2014 Farm Bill.
This year”™s markets will be held on May 12 and 26, June 9 and 23, July 14 and 28, August 11 and 25, September 8 and 22, October 13 and 27, and November 10 and 24.
To learn more about the farmers market and shuttle stops, call 914-734-3780 or go to the Harvest for Health section of the hospital website at nyp.org/hudsonvalley.
