The need for healthier, greener hospital coffee shops

Hospital coffee shops should promote health, nutrition, and sustainability, write Dr Aoife O’Sullivan and
Dr Ola Løkken Nordrum of Irish Doctors for the Environment     

The food options in Irish hospitals often fall short. This is not the fault of hardworking individual staff, but rather a systemic problem where hospital coffee shops are seen as a way to make a profit as opposed to promoting health.

The current typical Irish hospital coffee shop offers plastic wrapped, pre-made ultra processed sandwiches and wraps, supplemented by a large section of pre-made cakes and chocolate bars. If you are lucky, you may find a lone banana or an apple. To drink? Poor quality coffee in single-use takeaway cups. These coffee shops tend to follow the wider commercial trend of offering foods packaged with ‘health washing’ claims, a ‘protein bar’ that contains mostly refined sugars or a ‘vitamin drink’ which is bright green and has a list of ingredients with names unpronounceable to those without chemistry degrees. These marketing strategies unfairly target people who are desperately trying to make healthy choices in an obesogenic environment. They deserve genuinely healthy options.

Imagine a better alternative: Locally run and owned coffee shops offering nutritious, sustainable food and drinks that support both patients and staff.

Picture a small, thoughtfully curated menu that prioritises quality and local sourcing over a vast selection of pre-made, mass-produced unhealthy options:

Coffee: Locally roasted by Irish coffee roasters who prioritise fair pay and wellbeing for coffee farmers.

Sandwiches: Danish rye bread with cheese, pickled Irish cabbage, and cucumber; wholegrain sourdough baguettes with roasted Irish vegetables and hummus; goats cheese and beetroot on brown soda bread. The bread can be sourced from a local bakery or be homemade.

Snacks: Simple, wholesome treats like Anzac biscuits, seedy flapjacks, wholemeal scones, or savoury muffins.

Add to this a homemade soup of the day or a salad and you have a complete menu.

Customers, especially staff, should be encouraged to sit down with their food, eating it from proper plates, and drinking their coffee and tea from a ceramic mug, not a disposable one. As well as the health benefits of a lower salt, lower fat, less processed diet, these choices have the additional benefit of being better for the environment.

Local sourcing, less packaging, and reduced processing leads to an improved environmental impact from our food choices. Disposable cutlery, cups, and plates adds to waste, which also takes its toll on the environment. We should be incentivised to bring our own coffee cups. It needs to be easy to make the right choices.

Going down to the hospital coffee shop should be something you look forward to, something that could turn a bad day into a good day through wholesome homemade food that makes you feel good.

Let’s change the narrative. Let’s make hospital coffee shops about health, nutrition, and sustainability, not profits.

By focusing on sustainable, healthy options, hospital coffee shops could nourish not just bodies, but communities too.