Harvesting hope: Parkland employees volunteer to nourish community health
More than 30 Parkland Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center employees volunteered to get their hands dirty for a common mission: battling food insecurity.
The office of Health Equity at Parkland worked with the system’s Employee Resource Groups (ERG) to organize the volunteer event to commemorate Earth Day.
Volunteers tended to the F.A.R.M. (Food as Real Medicine) Garden at the Southeast Dallas Health Center located in an area of the city that is considered a “food desert.” According to the 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) developed by Parkland and Dallas County Health and Human Services, areas further away from downtown have a higher unemployment rate and less access to food.
The half-acre garden, which first came into fruition in 2019, is a collaborative endeavor between Parkland’s Community Integrated Health team and the Sustainability Department. The project aims to reduce food insecurity by providing healthy, organic produce free of charge while also promoting environmentally sustainable practices.
The fresh, nutritious produce harvested is then distributed directly to Parkland patients referred by their provider once a week at the farm stand.
“This garden is about sustainability, growing our own food and reducing our impact on climate change,” said Rebecca Bateman, Sustainability Program Manager at Parkland. “But we’re also located in an underserved community. This is a food desert. An area of food insecurity. And by participating in the sustainability initiative, we can also help advance health equity.”
Bateman says the project has positively impacted patients in more ways than one.
"A lot of patients have come in and said they’ve tried new vegetables that they didn’t even know existed before, and it turns out they really like them. I’ve had other patients start asking me gardening questions, such as, ‘Oh, this is so good! If I wanted to garden that myself, how would I do it?’” Bateman said. “I’ve had people say that they’ve planted some seeds from some of the vegetables we’ve given them. And I’ve had other patients come in and say they’ve been working with their doctors, and this food that they’ve been getting from Parkland has helped them get off their blood pressure medication.”
While the program has had a significant impact on patients and the community, the team responsible for managing it is quite small.
Bateman and fellow Sustainability Program Manager, Abeer Aslam, are the only two who regularly tend the garden. They describe it as a passion project since it’s only one of their many sustainability responsibilities.
The two say the garden's success would not have been possible without the help of volunteers from the ERG members. Volunteers say the event fostered a sense of community and shared purpose.
“Our employees definitely see themselves in what Parkland stands for. And that’s why even if it is a Saturday morning, they’re going to do everything possible to be here bright and early to clean out weeds, to put in compost, but do whatever is needed to make sure they have not only a part into the broader mission but are here to extend and be there for the community,” said Dinaz Jiwani, ERG Program Manager at Parkland. “We are all in this with an endgame of putting forward Parkland as an entity that is there for the community and is there to provide quality healthcare outcomes for everyone.”
Last year alone, 1,055 pounds of fresh produce were distributed to 552 household members, according to the Sustainability Department.
For more information about Parkland services, visit www.parklandhealth.org
.
Back