GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, used a Monday stop in Grand Rapids to hold up Corewell Health as a model for what hospitals put on patients’ plates.
Speaking at the Downtown Market, Kennedy said more than 250 hospitals nationwide have now signed the Make Hospital Food Healthier pledge, a federal push to treat better meals as part of patient care rather than an afterthought.
Kennedy credited the Grand Rapids-based health system with helping shape the pledge from the start and with recruiting other hospital systems to sign on quickly. Corewell leaders said the commitment builds on changes the system has been making for years.
At Corewell, those changes include produce bought from local farmers, drinks with no added sugar and proteins from sustainable sources. Kennedy argued that hospital menus have long leaned on sugar, fried items and ultra-processed food.
Beyond patient trays, the pledge asks hospitals to widen healthy options for staff and visitors and to send patients home with nutrition know-how they can keep using after discharge.
Filed under: Grand Rapids MI Health News
