Employee garden offers place to unwind, dig in the dirt

Employee garden offers place to unwind, dig in the dirt

Jake Larkin recalls the days working during the pandemic in 2020 when he needed a break - just a quick pause in his work to decompress and think about something other than what was going on inside the La Crosse hospital at Gundersen Health System.

So, the physician assistant in internal medicine would head out to the third-floor employee terrace garden where there were a few garden beds, and he'd toil in the dirt.

"It was a very stressful time in my professional life, and it was really impactful for me to be able to come out here and clear my head, even if it was just for five or 10 minutes," Larkin says.

Soon, the area that hadn't garnered much attention in years became a sort of refuge for staff who needed one. Several others joined Larkin, and before long, vegetables began sprouting from the soil.

It was a perfect place for produce to grow, so the next year, Larkin and Anna Kitzmann, M.D., who also attended to the garden, were awarded a grant to plant vegetables in several of the beds.

And since then, as word of the beds has spread, employees from different departments have banded together to plant vegetables and flowers. This year, 16 employee groups are caring for their own section of the garden, including food services, oncology, medical education, pharmacy and the logistics department. But the fruits of their labor aren't only for those who work in the garden.

"Everything is freely available for any employee to harvest, whether they're involved in the gardening efforts or not," Larkin says.

Staff work on the gardens on their own time, be it before or after a shift or during a break. Oftentimes, they use those opportunities to gather flowers to share with coworkers or with patients' families who need something to brighten their day.

In fact, the number of employees visiting the terrace garden has increased every year since 2021, which saw just under 3,000 visits. Last year, more than 5,000 visits took place. That many people visiting from departments all over the organization provides an opportunity to get to know one another.

"I think you find a lot of stress relief and connecting with other employees - who they might not otherwise cross paths with - over a mutual interest in gardening," Larkin says. "There are a lot of benefits, in addition to the healthy food that's grown here."

One of those benefits, Dr. Kitzmann says, is the idea that eating more vegetables is important for disease prevention and treatment.

"What we eat matters, and what we eat plays a huge role in the diseases we develop," says Dr. Kitzmann, who practices in ophthalmology and is also board certified in Lifestyle Medicine. "Initially, we wanted to start this as a way to really open up the conversation about how important food is, that food is medicine."

In fact, the effort to provide vegetables and teach about their benefits is growing beyond the terrace garden. Dr. Kitzmann leads several culinary medicine classes in communities around the region.

The broader vision is to create a hospital farm, which is underway, and located near employee parking lot F. The initial phase of the farm is focused on rehabilitation of the soil with planting cover crops and networking with potential partners, both within the organization and in the local and regional community.

Garden organizers were also awarded a $5,000 grant in collaboration with Central High School's environmental club to plant a flowering hedgerow along the farm hospital plot. That's expected to provide beneficial insect habitat and create a visually appealing border to the space.

Larkin says the opportunity to garden at work is special, but it's the benefits of a hospital farm that could pay off years from now.

"We're really excited about what this represents about the future of healthcare," he says. "There are multiple things we're hitting on - social connection, healthy eating, physical activity, and stress relief. Those are four of the main root causes of chronic illness. We're excited to see where this proactive approach can lead us in the future."