title: Shared Opportunities on Institutional Lands: On-Site Food Production, Its Benefits, Barriers, and Opportunities.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This article outlines preliminary findings of a 3-year project that explored on-site food production on institutional properties, primarily healthcare facilities.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  There are growing pressures on healthcare facilities to improve their food offerings and incorporate food gardens into their health programs. While several healthcare facilities produce food on-site, there are few studies that explore opportunities, capacities, and institutional barriers related to on-site food production.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study employed mixed methods including historical review, case studies, surveys, interviews, pilot garden projects, and Geographic Information System mapping. The number of participating institutions varied by method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Benefits associated with on-site food production can be health, economic, environmental, and social. There are also institutional barriers including administrative roadblocks, perceived obstacles, and the difficulty in quantitatively, measuring the qualitatively documented benefits.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The benefits of food gardens far outweigh the challenges. On-site food production has tremendous potential to improve nutrition for staff and patients, offer healing spaces, better connect institutions with the communities in which they are located, and provide the long-professed benefits of gardening for all involved-from therapeutic benefits and outdoor physical activities to developing skills and social relationships in ways that few other activities do.
authors.affiliation: School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada irena.knezevic@carleton.ca.
authors.forename: Irena
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Knezevic
authors.affiliation: Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Phil
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mount
authors.affiliation: Department of Political Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Clement
mesh_terms: D003256:Community Participation; D005523:Food Supply / Q000379:methods*; D051639:Gardening / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006268:Health Facilities; D006801:Humans; D009864:Ontario; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012574:Schools; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: community-engaged research; food in healthcare; institutional gardens; on-site food production; therapeutic gardens