Munson Healthcare Gives Back to the Environment ... and to Livestock!

Every day, hundreds of people move through the cafeteria at Munson Medical Center. After enjoying a tasty breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack, those hundreds of people leave behind a fair amount of food waste and scraps. If you’ve ever left behind a pizza crust or that last bite of your sandwich, you may not have realized you’re also helping to feed the livestock belonging to one of Munson’s nursing team members. 

Trever Voice is a Registered Nurse working on Munson Medical Center’s A2 Unit. Trever has been working at Munson since June of 2023 and raising pigs since 2018. When he’s not improving lives for our patients, he’s improving the lives of the five pigs on his farm (one boar and four sows), all of whom benefit from Munson Healthcare’s compost program. 

“I put a post out on Facebook looking for ideas for livestock feed. As a small farm, I try to be resourceful and environmentally friendly,” said Trever. “I’ve been working with breweries to use their spent grain for my cattle, so, I figured I could do the same for my pigs. Shelley Felt (Admissions Representative, Nursing Administration, Munson Medical Center) saw my post and reached out to see if I was interested in Munson’s compost. So far, it’s worked out great!”

For almost two years now, Trever has made two or three trips to the cafeteria every week to pick up Munson’s food scrap compost. “It varies on what the cafeteria has going,” he said, “but each trip gives me a half to 3/4ths of a skid steer bucket of compost,” or roughly 100 pounds per trip. “All the pigs feed from the compost along with grain and other goodies,” he added. 

“It’s a win for everyone involved,” Trever said. “First, the environment — it’s less waste that gets put into landfills. It helps Munson cut down on waste, and for me, it makes farming a little more sustainable.” Over two years, that adds up to about 15 tons of food saved from going to the dump!

That’s not all that Munson Healthcare does to reduce food waste and care for our environment. All of our hospitals are focused on sustainability and reducing food waste. The efforts look a little different at each location, but are happening across the system. Here are just a few ways we support people and the planet: 

• Excess prepared meals and produce in Traverse City go to Food Rescue, a program from Goodwill Northern Michigan that helps save over two million pounds of food from going to waste each year.
• The oversupply of uneaten food (i.e., bagels, packaged meals) is offered to Munson Medical Center's kitchen staff to eat during their shift.
• All of Munson Medical Center’s cooking grease is saved for use at a biomass plant, which then converts it into biodiesel fuel.
• The medical center’s Waste Watch monitoring system, which tracks food waste, helps the Food & Nutrition team adjust production numbers closer to actual food usage.
• All food containers are now recyclable and biodegradable throughout our entire healthcare system. 

“Munson Healthcare is always looking at our sustainability efforts and creative ways to reduce our ‘footprint,’” said Roy Bartle-Thomas, Director of Food & Nutrition Services for MMC. “There are so many great opportunities to reduce, reuse and recycle. We’re thrilled that we’re giving back to a local farm and in turn, giving back to the environment!”