Health Care Sys­tem as Dri­ver for Food  Sys­tem Trans­for­ma­ti­on

Various fresh foods – vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds and grains – arranged in bowls and scattered across a surface

© iStock / Aamu­lya

Health Care Sys­tem as Dri­ver for Food Sys­tem Trans­for­ma­ti­on

The trans­for­ma­ti­on of the food sys­tem towards more plant-based diets, in line with the Pla­ne­ta­ry Health Diet, is a key dri­ver of human and pla­ne­ta­ry health. It lowers the pre­va­lence of non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dise­a­ses, redu­ces green­house gas emis­si­ons and makes a signi­fi­cant con­tri­bu­ti­on to the pre­ser­va­ti­on of eco­sys­tem ser­vices. The­se effects ease the bur­den on health­ca­re sys­tems and streng­then their resi­li­ence.

Actors in the health­ca­re sec­tor enjoy a high level of socie­tal trust and play a key role in trans­for­ma­ti­on pro­ces­ses. Against this back­ground, the pro­ject aims to streng­then the enga­ge­ment of health­ca­re actors – start­ing from hos­pi­tals – for a healt­hi­er and more sus­tainable diet in Ger­ma­ny and bey­ond.

The pro­ject com­pri­ses three strands of action:

  • First, best-prac­ti­ce hos­pi­tals are iden­ti­fied in order to deri­ve con­cre­te start­ing points for healt­hy and sus­tainable hos­pi­tal cate­ring.
  • Second, the pro­ject ana­ly­zes and pro­mo­tes the net­wor­king of hos­pi­tals within their local con­texts in order to streng­then regio­nal food envi­ron­ments and to anchor plant-based com­mu­ni­ty cate­ring more broad­ly.
  • Third, net­wor­king across insti­tu­tio­nal and poli­ti­cal levels is streng­the­ned, com­bi­ned with the deve­lo­p­ment of new nar­ra­ti­ves as well as coher­ent poli­cy recom­men­da­ti­ons at the natio­nal and Euro­pean levels.

Pro­ject aims

  • Ana­ly­sis and dis­se­mi­na­ti­on of best prac­ti­ces for healt­hy and sus­tainable hos­pi­tal cate­ring
  • Streng­thening the voice of hos­pi­tals as health­ca­re stake­hol­ders in sha­ping poli­ti­cal and socie­tal per­cep­ti­ons of healt­hy and sus­tainable die­ta­ry pat­terns as one of the cor­ner­sto­nes of human and pla­ne­ta­ry health.
  • Net­wor­king among health­ca­re stake­hol­ders with the aim of deve­lo­ping com­mon goals and recom­men­da­ti­ons regar­ding plant-based diets.
  • Invol­ving health stake­hol­ders in the design of local, natio­nal and EU-wide food sys­tems.

Metho­do­lo­gy

The CPHP plays a key role in the third strand of action. It iden­ti­fies are­as of focus to sup­port the poli­cy deba­te on com­pre­hen­si­ve, sus­tainable hos­pi­tal cate­ring. It also orga­ni­s­es stake­hol­der dia­lo­gues and deve­lo­ps poli­cy posi­ti­ons and demands.

Focus Area

Exter­nal res­sour­ces

Pro­ject dura­ti­on

Janu­ary 2026 — June 2027

Cont­act per­son

Part­ner

DKG Logo
Logo KLUG - Deutsche Allianz Klimawandel und Gesundheit