Public Health Potential of Farmers’ Markets on Medical Center Campuses: A Case Study From Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

摘要

There are currently 7175 farmers’ markets in the United States, and these organizations are increasingly viewed as one facet of the solution to national health problems. There has been a recent trend toward establishing markets on medical center campuses, and such partnerships can augment a medical center's ability to serve community health. However, to our knowledge no studies have described the emergence of a market at a medical center, the barriers and challenges such an initiative has faced, or the nature of programming it may foster. We provide a qualitative description of the process of starting a seasonal, once-a-week, producers-only market at the Pennsylvania State Hershey Medical Center, and we call for greater public health attention to these emerging community spaces. Farmers’ markets are defined as recurrent organizations at fixed locations where vendors sell farm products and other goods. 1 According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), 7175 markets operate in rural and urban areas 2 serving public health in multifaceted ways: increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, 3 revitalizing neighborhoods, strengthening local economies, promoting a sustainable environment through the consumption of local foods, 4 empowering community members to learn more about the items they buy (e.g., what chemicals went into their production, how many miles the food traveled, how the soil was treated, and how the animals were raised), and encouraging social interaction and physical activity. Markets are increasingly viewed as one facet of the solution to national chronic health problems. The White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report to the President has sought a greater role for farmers’ markets in contributing to a reduction in childhood obesity, 5 and first lady Michelle Obama has promoted markets as part of her “Let's Move” initiative. 6 The president's 2011 budget proposes an additional $5 million investment in the Farmers Market Promotion Program at the USDA, which provides grants to establish and improve access to farmers’ markets. 7 The federal government is also investing millions of dollars to increase the number of farmers’ markets that participate in supplemental nutrition programs, with the goal of reducing “food deserts” in inner-city and rural communities. 8 , 9 Within this national movement, there has been a more recent trend of establishing farmers’ markets on medical center campuses—thus creating partnerships that strengthen the abilities of medical centers and clinics to provide complete, patient-centered care 10 and serve community health. 11 However, there is a paucity of qualitative studies describing how individual markets have emerged in nontraditional settings such as medical centers, the barriers and challenges those initiatives have faced, and the nature of programming that can occur in these unique spaces. 12 We have provided a qualitative description of the process of establishing a seasonal, once-a-week, producers-only farmers’ market at the Pennsylvania State Hershey Medical Center (PSHMC) in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which we established in spring 2010. We define the rationale for initiating a market on an academic medical center campus, discuss key lessons learned and barriers faced, and describe the nature of public health–oriented programming that occurred at the market and could be replicated at other medical center–based markets. Although each new farmers’ market emerges in specific settings and adapts according to local needs, some general principles salient to the experience of the Farmers’ Market in Hershey are likely applicable to similar efforts on other medical center campuses. We have described the process of establishing and evaluating the Farmers’ Market in Hershey to facilitate the growth of similar medical center farmers’ markets in other regions.