Program overview: NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest public health care system in the country, offered a Meatless Monday “chef’s choice” plant-based option to patients at all 11 acute care hospitals across New York City. Hospital dietitians also counseled patients on the benefits of a plant-based diet as they made their meal choices.
Objective: Provide patients with healthier, meat-free options along with dietary and nutrition counseling.
Process: Adopt Meatless Monday as a simple way to promote plant-based meals to patients and educate them about the health benefits of reduced meat consumption. Support from former Brooklyn Borough President (and now mayor) Eric Adams and William A. Brown, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island, helped get the program started.
The system launched Meatless Monday to provide patients with a greater selection of meat-free meal options. Hospital dietitians began educating patients about the health benefits of plant-based foods and assisting them in making dietary lifestyle changes.
Outcome: Meatless Monday became an integral part of the NYC Health + Hospitals dining service, featuring a chef’s choice of meatless entrées for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Tray cards and brochures introduced the program to patients, and dietitians offered education and nutrition counseling after discharge.
“Hospitals have a unique opportunity to influence patients and families in rethinking the nutritional quality of their meals, and Meatless Monday now has a role in that conversation,” Adams noted at a press conference announcing the program.
Dr. Mitchel Katz, president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, spoke about the hospital’s commitment to supporting patients in adopting healthy behaviors: “We want to empower our patients to live their healthiest lives by introducing them to healthier foods that they may choose once they’re discharged. The Meatless Monday initiative is consistent with this mission and fits with our new Plant-Based Lifestyle Medicine Program at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, developed to provide intensive support for outpatients who wish to adopt healthy lifestyle changes.”
Offered under the slogan “Power Up with Plants,” Meatless Monday meal options included familiar foods, such as black bean soup, spaghetti and plant-based Bolognese sauce, three-bean chili, vegan beefless strips, garden burgers, rice and beans, cream of potato soup, assorted fruits, and hummus. New Meatless Monday meal choices are being introduced periodically to keep the program fresh.
Commenting on how Meatless Monday encourages healthy behavioral changes, Whitney Ahneman, clinical nutrition manager at Coney Island’s public hospital, said: “For many patients, making changes to their diets and breaking long-standing habits can seem overwhelming; however, Meatless Monday [allows] patients to adopt small changes that can make a big difference over time in reversing or preventing certain chronic conditions.”
