Health center embraces green
The Amenia Health Care Center in Dutchess County has broken ground on what is believed to be the state”™s first green community health center. To help pay for it, the health center will be holding a fundraiser next month at a restaurant that grows its own greens.?The $3.7 million renovation and expansion of the health center, part of Hudson River HealthCare, the renovation will double the size of the Amenia facility to 8,300 square feet and increase its capacity from 7,500 to 15,000 patients from eastern Duchess.
The center will incorporate rooftop solar panels, high-efficiency heating and cooling, multiple units and zones for energy efficiency, maximized use of natural light, low-emission interior finishes and low-light pollution fixtures. Captured rainwater will irrigate a wellness garden where indigenous plants and herbs will create an environment for aromatherapy and quiet meditation, according to center officials.
“The existing health center is in serious need of expansion and improvements to keep pace with the growing number of residents in eastern Dutchess County who need to see a doctor, dentist or mental health professional,” said HRHCare President and CEO Anne Kauffman Nolon. “Introducing green building features is part of our commitment to the total health of the person and the community.”
“We believe in creating an environment that promotes healing and wellness by enhancing the patient”™s total experience,” Nolon said. ?To help pay for the renovations a fundraising dinner is will be held Oct. 30 at Blue Hill at Stone Barns Restaurant in Pocantico Hills, famed for its menu consisting of foods fresh from its own surrounding farm fields.
The event, the 6th Annual Cornucopia: Â A Celebration of Hudson Valley Harvest & Health, will honor the woman known as the mother of the organic food movement, Joan Dye Gussow, a nutrition educator and a groundbreaker for her moral approach to food choices.
She is the author of “This Organic Life” and “The Feeding Web” and is Mary Swartz Rose Professor Emerita and former chair of the Columbia University Teachers College Nutrition Department.
For additional information, call (914) 734-8736 or visit HRHCareCornucopia.com.