Patients and employees have a new outdoor area to enjoy at UPMC’s Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Staff and patients celebrated the opening of the refurbished outdoor area Wednesday.
A painted “mindfulness path” is decorated with kid-friendly games and designs and stretches through the hospital’s third-floor terrace. An edible garden stretches alongside the path and provides hands-on activities for patients to learn about healthy eating and sustainability. Children can help harvest the various vegetables and fruits, which will be served in the cafeteria.
“My hope is that what this does for our community in the hospital is to enhance our patient, family experience and our staff and employee experience by giving them some time away, some respite time out of the four walls of the hospital,” says Diane Hupp, the president of the UPMC Children’s Hospital.
The vision for the project came from frontline workers involved in the Green Team, who advocate for environmental health and sustainability at UPMC. Lois Shertz, then a nurse at Children’s Hospital, created the Green Team in 2017 and had the original vision of an edible garden for families and staff.
“This space is a metaphor of the need to create a healthy planet for healthy people, where we can live in harmony with each other and with nature. And this space also represents what makes us so special here at UPMC and Children's Hospital,” says Dr. Isabela Angelelli, who now directs the Green Team.
Hupp says UPMC has been a leader in environmental sustainability within Pittsburgh, but she hopes the garden inspires other Go Green initiatives within neighboring communities.
The project was funded with a $78,375 donation by Green Mountain Energy Sun Club.
