Plow To Plate Featuring ‘Truck-Fired’ Pizza

NEW MILFORD — New Milford Hospital will host the fifth event sponsored by its Plow to Plate community coalition to promote healthy, locally grown foods in Litchfield and Dutchess Counties. “Back to the Barn: On the Farm,” a special family event will be held October 7 from 11 am to 2 pm at The Silo/Hunt Hill Farm Trust, 44 Upland Road.

Led by Chef Tim Cipriano, food service director for the Bloomfield public schools who is known as “the food dude,” the event will feature Big Green Truck Pizza (www.biggreentruckpizza.com), serving specialty pizzas from the wood-fired oven built into the back of a restored 1946 International Harvester truck. While enjoying the food and festivities, parents and children also will learn about the source of goat cheese and milk, and visit with farm animals from Green Chimneys School.

For reservations, call The Silo at 860-355-0300 or visit www.hunthillfarmtrust.org.

Launched in June, the hospital’s Plow to Plate initiative is designed to help the consumers embrace better, healthier ways to eat, and encourage institutions and restaurants to use locally and regionally grown foods. It is believed to be a first for the health care industry. The hospital formed a community coalition of physicians, farmers, chefs, restaurateurs, community leaders, land preservationists, and state and local government officials to sponsor public education.

Additionally, the effort includes the hospital’s commitment to transforming its own food service to one that provides wholesome food that is locally and regionally produced, whenever possible.

Plow-to-Plate took root when this diverse group began to share their ideas about addressing the escalating obesity and diabetes rates among children. The group quickly attracted others and formalized itself as the Plow-to-Plate Community Coalition, with New Milford Hospital providing leadership and organizational support for its public education and advocacy efforts.

The hospital’s guidance in this grassroots initiative complements its decisive action to provide clinical programs to prevent disease. Led by President and CEO Joseph P. Frolkis, MD, PhD, a nationally recognized expert in cardiovascular disease prevention, the hospital offers a multidisciplinary program to help patients reduce their risk factors for heart disease, diabetes, and obesity-related illness.

Beyond the cooking class series and family farm event held this summer, the Plow-to-Plate coalition’s multiyear public education will continue next year with a focus on children, and the following year on senior adults. For more information on Plow to Plate, visit www.newmilfordhospital.org.