The man putting the healthy into hospitals

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, or so they say. Well, that's not quite the intention of fitness expert Richard Kennedy, but if it helps to educate people about healthy choices, then apples it will be.

Kennedy has started a food revolution of his own in South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel. The idea, inspired by unsuitable vending machine options, has flourished not only to provide a healthier choice to hospital visitors but also to include community involvement and sponsorship.

The whole thing started as a rant from an overtired father who was expecting more from the HSE. “The reason I was in the hospital in the first place was our little fella, Ollie, was sick and the night I was staying with him I was lying on the reclining seat on the ward and I couldn’t sleep. At about 3am I went for a walk down the corridor and I saw a vending machine, not that I was expecting much to be in there but it was branded HSE,” Kennedy explains,

Healthy options

“The slogans around it said to be ‘choice smart’ and to choose the green label. I saw that underneath some was a little green sticker saying ‘healthy option’. So the first one that stood out was Diet Coke, then it was Coke Zero, Kellogg’s Squares and Nutri-Grain bars. I thought, whatever about having them in there, don’t even try to say that’s a healthy option, just take away this green label thing and leave it the way it is. You are just convincing someone or ‘educating’ someone this is a healthy option. I thought, this is crazy.”

A wound-up Kennedy returned to the room and took to social media to express his disgust at the choice of products and misleading information the hospital vending machines were delivering. By morning Kennedy had the support of his social media followers and he decided to take matters further.

“First, I thought to change the vending machines’ content, to put healthier stuff in there, but then I was told [the vending machine company] had a contract until 2020.”

Sensing this was a battle he was never going to win he approached them with another idea, one that was already proving successful in local businesses.

Free fruit

In late 2015, Kennedy had worked together with local business owners in Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir to offer free fruit to kids in stores, similar to the initiative celebrity chef Jamie Oliver rolled out in the UK.

He was sick of having to constantly deter his kids from picking up free lollipops at cashier counters or steering them away from the sugary snacks every time he entered a store. The idea behind it is to offer a free healthy alternative to kids especially if they have maxed out on their treats for the day.

Kennedy made a proposal to the hospital that baskets of apples be placed in waiting areas offering a free option that would be healthier than the products that could be bought from a vending machines.

“It took a lot of pushing from me to get it going. I suppose if you think about it we are in a hospital, if someone else is bringing the healthy option in to a hospital and you are a hospital and already supposed to be providing nourishment and care and wellbeing for people, it doesn’t look good. It took a bit of time. It probably took the best part of three months or more.”

Local business

The apples are sourced from Con Traas’s The Apple Farm, which is outside Clonmel, and are paid for by a different local business each week. The baskets are displayed at paediatrics, outpatients and the staff canteen. Initially Kennedy had the task of stocking them himself, but after a chat with Charlie McGeever, principal of Gaelcholáiste Chéitinn Clonmel, the arrangement of getting transition year students to take on the project developed.

“Every Monday now they [the students] go and pick up the apples with one of the teachers and they drop them off and go back to school. I go around each week and get sponsorship, it’s €60 every week. The way it has been happening now is people have been contacting me and saying they’ve seen the post on Facebook or someone told them about it. Every week I put up the same post [on social media] and say thank you very much to whomever has sponsored the free fruit for all.”

Despite South Tipperary General Hospital’s positive response to Kennedy’s concerns, he says he had no luck convincing the HSE to do anything about the message the contents of hospital vending machines send out to its patients and their visitors.

“When I first put it up I got a message from HSE live on Twitter. They asked where the vending machine was and thanked me for highlighting the issue, I felt like someone was taking note. Obviously, they didn’t because I was up there again delivering apples and every time I’d take another photo of the vending machines, put it up on Twitter and message them again but I never got anything back.”

HSE policy

The HSE policy on vending machines states: “The HSE is committed to maintaining and promoting the good health of the population of Ireland. This policy aims to ensure that this commitment is reflected in the food and drinks vended to patients, staff and visitors in HSE facilities.”

This is not something that Kennedy feels is being adhered to. “They may have set out guidelines with good intentions, but clearly some things are lost in translation. Just because it is under the calorie guidelines, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the healthy option.

“I suppose they [the suppliers] are going from the guidelines that the HSE are giving them, so if it’s under 150 calories it’s [seen as] a smart choice. “

Kennedy’s work with the hospital has not gone unnoticed, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution website featured his initiative, which Kennedy said was a pleasant reward for his efforts. He’s hoping to introduce the initiative to other hospitals such as Waterford Regional Hospital, he said.