If you’ve ever been confined to a hospital bed for any length of time, then you know that relying on the cafeteria for your daily meals can be difficult. Often, the food options are unhealthy and loaded with salt, hidden sugar, refined vegetable oils and chemical flavoring. But the good news is that some hospitals are rethinking their approach to hospital food and moving away from processed ingredients.

Hospitals are a place of healing, but they also need to make sure that their patients and staff are nourished. For this reason, a growing number of hospitals are shifting their focus to aligning the values of their food purchasing decisions — from local sourcing and equity and diversity to climate and health — with their mission of caring for their communities.

One hospital that has taken this initiative is Northwell Health, which has made a major commitment to reimagining its kitchens. The health network has been bringing in chefs who have worked at Michelin-rated restaurants and are skilled at menu planning, fresh food sourcing and making healthy dishes tasty.

Northwell Health has eliminated fryers, cut out sugary beverages and switched to scratch cooking, which has resulted in a range of healthy new foods that have become popular among the network’s patients and staff. The new dishes have global flavors that are meant to appeal to a wide variety of tastes. Examples of these include Moroccan vegetable tagine, Spanish vegetable paella, garden Bolognese with rigatoni and pad thai noodle bowl.

The health system is also working to support its local farmers and ranchers by purchasing the majority of the produce, meats, eggs and fish used in its hospitals’ cafes from sources within a 250-mile radius of Sacramento. This approach reduces food miles, cuts the carbon footprint of deliveries and provides a financial boost for local producers.

Another aspect of hospital dining that is getting a much needed overhaul is the cafeteria’s snack selection. Typically, the hospital snack round has been stocked with a lot of unhealthy choices like chips, cookies and cakes. To improve its offerings, Northwell has introduced three healthier snacks a day — fruit, a veggie platter and a grain tray.

The food offered by the rest of the hospital has remained unchanged, with some exceptions. For example, a breakfast posted to the Reddit r/hospitalfood subreddit included congee with pork and mushroom, a croissant and orange juice. It received a rating of 8/10 from the community and was a far cry from the typical American hospital breakfast.