Veggie Van visits school

October 20, 2017

Baldwin—During parent-teacher conferences last week at Baldwin Community Schools, families had an opportunity to receive a free bag of fruits and veggies. As part of the Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital Win with Wellness Fit Club program, a Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) Veggie Van provided the free food.

“Veggie van is a YMCA program where fruits and vegetables are purchased directly from local farmers and then sold at low prices to community members,” said Patricia Ezdebski, manager of the Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital marketing department. “Spectrum Health has recently partnered with the YMCA on this program. At certain events, the fruits and vegetables are provided free of charge. This was the case in Baldwin, at the parent-teacher conferences.

“Fruit and vegetables were packaged into bags and given away, with recipe cards for area families,” Ezdebski stated.” In addition, free blood sugar and blood pressure screenings were available by the Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital Win with Wellness Fit Club staff. They also were on hand to register children at Baldwin Elementary School for the 2018 Fit Club program at the school.”

Luis Chen, YMCA Veggie Van manager, said the veggie van is centered out of Grand Rapids and drops off veggies to 14 different locations in the area.

“Our goal is to hand out 500 bags of groceries today,” he said, adding this is the first time the veggie van visited Baldwin. “Our goal is to provide community access to fresh produce. All of the fruits and veggies we hand out are locally grown. We are like a traveling farmer’s market. It is a nice way to give back to the community.”

Jessie Jones, community relations manager at Spectrum Health, assisted handing out bags of fruits and veggies.

“This is a kick off to our program, and we will pass out more veggies again this spring and summer as garden produce starts coming in,” she said.

People are at the heart of everything we do, and the inspiration for our legacy of outstanding outcomes, innovation, strong community partnerships, philanthropy and transparency. Corewell Health is a not-for-profit health system that provides health care and coverage with an exceptional team of 60,000+ dedicated people—including more than 11,500 physicians and advanced practice providers and more than 15,000 nurses providing care and services in 21 hospitals, 300+ outpatient locations and several post-acute facilities—and Priority Health, a provider-sponsored health plan serving more than 1.3 million members. Through experience and collaboration, we are reimagining a better, more equitable model of health and wellness. For more information, visit corewellhealth.org.

Contact:
Patricia Ezdebski
Marketing and Public Relations
Office: 231.845.2350
Mobile: 231.301.4864
Email: patricia.ezdebski@corewellhealth.org