Plant-Based Diets in Irish Healthcare Facilities
Join us in calling for healthier, more sustainable hospital food
This campaign advocates for plant-based meals to become the default option in Irish hospitals—offering nutritious, climate-friendly choices without restricting individual preference. By supporting this evidence-based initiative, you’re helping drive real change in healthcare: improving patient outcomes, reducing environmental harm, and ensuring hospitals lead by example in promoting better diets. Read the full letter below, sign your name in support, and download our poster to share within your hospital.
If you’re interested in starting a conversation in your hospital about promoting plant-based diets, this flyer (see below) is designed to support discussions with key hospital stakeholders. Feel free to download and share it.
In recent years, healthcare professionals have increasingly called for more sustainable approaches to food in medical settings. In January 2023, Dr. Seán Owens reflected on the broader implications of our food choices in The Benefit of Plant-Based Diets, writing: “At a time of pending ecological collapse, the ethical onus for plant-based diets now extends far beyond animal welfare and into the protection of the very natural systems that our health depends on.”
Building on this momentum, Dr. Aoife O’Sullivan and Dr. Ola Løkken Nordrum explored the potential for change within everyday healthcare spaces. In their February 2025 piece, The Need for Healthier, Greener Hospital Coffee Shops, they reimagined how hospital cafés could support both human and planetary health.