Brattleboro Retreat announces switch to local, sustainable, Vermont-grown produce in support of community & regional farmers

The Brattleboro Retreat has entered a relationship with Black River Produce, a Vermont-based distributor of local produce, through which the hospital’s food service vendor, Sodexo, is able to purchase its produce and cheese provisions with first priority given to Vermont-sourced goods. The move comes in response to internal surveys and staff suggestions strongly in favor of supporting local, sustainable agriculture.
‘We’re a rural community in a green state,’ explained Vareen O’Keefe-Domaleski, MSN, Ed.D., senior vice president for Patient Care. ‘The Brattleboro Retreat wants to support our local farmers and also provide our patients, staff and guests with the very best in healthy, fresh, high-quality produce.’
According to Sodexo’s Rick Krolick, manager of Food Service at the Brattleboro Retreat, more than 500 meals are served to patients, staff and guests of the Brattleboro Retreat on an average day. To meet this demand the Retreat receives three large produce shipments per week. The costs of buying local, according to Krolick, have been fairly competitive with national purveyors.
‘People really like the idea that we’re able to provide them with produce that is grown in and around the state of Vermont,’ said Krolick. ‘So in addition to providing jobs here at the hospital, this is another way the Brattleboro Retreat can help support the local economy.’
The Brattleboro Retreat has a long tradition of championing local agriculture and modeling a holistic approach to healing and recovery. For many decades in the 19th Century, for example, patients grew vegetables on land north of the hospital known as the Retreat Meadows.
‘This new initiative definitely supports the Retreat’s overall philosophy of care, as well as our longstanding commitment to the community,’ added O’Keefe-Domaleski.
The Brattleboro Retreat, founded in 1834, is a not-for-profit, regional specialty psychiatric hospital and addictions treatment center, providing a full range of diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitation services for individuals of all ages and their families. Nationally recognized for its premier treatment in behavioral healthcare, the Brattleboro Retreat offers a high quality, individualized, comprehensive continuum of care including inpatient, partial hospitalization, residential and outpatient treatment.