When KimberLee Mudge, MD, joined UPMC Memorial, she had a vision for how the York, Pa., hospital could promote healthier living.
“Hospitals can treat illness, but they can also be hubs for wellness,” she says.
Over the last four-plus years, Dr. Mudge has led a push to promote healthy living at UPMC Memorial. It began with the creation of walking trails on the campus in 2019 and continued with the installation of a Breast Cancer Garden of Hope at the trailhead.
In late 2023, the embrace of wellness reached a new milestone with the first crops planted in three greenhouses on the UPMC Memorial campus. The greenhouses will feed a farm-to-hospital program, providing fresh, healthy food for the hospital.
“I think the concept of wellness is at the core of who I try to be,” says Dr. Mudge, a general surgeon at Leader Surgical Associates-UPMC. “And part of this whole vision of the trails, areas of meditation, and wellness overall (are) a means of providing care to my community.”
‘It Keeps Me Grounded’
Nature is in Dr. Mudge’s nature.
She grew up in a small town in northern Pennsylvania that had no movie theater. The first McDonald’s restaurant opened there when she was in high school.
“It was a different time — almost Mayberry-ish,” she says, referencing the small town from The Andy Griffith Show. “We spent our days outside entertaining ourselves and doing things all day, every day.”
Her grandmother was a birder and gardener, and her father and uncle had an interest in nature and the environment as well. Those interests became ingrained in Dr. Mudge. She majored in zoology and biology in college and got a master’s degree in biology.
After that came medical school and a career in general surgery, specializing in breast surgery, at Leader Surgical Associates in York.
Throughout her time as a surgeon, the outdoors remained important to Dr. Mudge. She bought an old farmhouse and turned it into a hobby farm. The farm has 11 sheep, nine alpacas, two llamas, two donkeys, chickens, honeybees, an orchard, a blueberry patch, and much more.
“My mornings start at 4:30, where I’m mucking stalls before I come to work,” Dr. Mudge says. “And that’s how my day ends, also. It keeps me grounded.”
It also brings her peace. Dr. Mudge says breast surgery is a rewarding job because it allows her to help patients. But it also brings many difficult days.
“There are lots of long days and fatigue,” she says. “Most of my friends and family know that if I’m really struggling, I go outside and go for a walk, or dig a hole in my yard, or plant something.”
When Leader Surgical Associates joined UPMC in 2019, Dr. Mudge saw an opportunity to bring nature’s healing power to the hospital campus.
‘A Perfect Opportunity’
The UPMC Memorial campus, including the main hospital and outpatient center, sits on a former golf course in York.
“After the golf course closed, this was a barren land,” Dr. Mudge says. “The community would walk on (the old golf cart paths), but it was really kind of desolate. And when UPMC acquired and started creating, it was a perfect opportunity to encourage community wellness and walking.”
When Leader Surgical Associates joined UPMC, Dr. Mudge proposed turning the cart paths into a walking trail. She received support from hospital administration and the Pinnacle Foundation, and the trail opened in September 2019.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Mudge saw that many more people were walking the trail.
“COVID obviously impacted all of us in various ways,” she says. “But I could sit in my office and watch the community come out and start utilizing the trail more and more. It was a really cool thing.”
The trail promoted walking and provided an opportunity for community involvement. York Excavating excavated the trail, while York Water Company installed a water source.
Several scouts completed their Eagle Scout projects at points throughout the trail. They include an informational kiosk about invasive plants and plants with medicinal value, a Little Free Library, and a platform for exercise.
Community members could purchase benches, trees, birdhouses, or squirrel feeders in loved ones’ honor. And the hospital also put up several beehives, promoting honeybees’ value to the environment.
“The trail is really kind of neat,” Dr. Mudge says. “There are three or four ponds, so flora and fauna abound in the woodland section. A lower area is more open, meadow-like, with additional ponds. You can walk the trail and see blue herons, red foxes, deer, and turkeys — you name it.
“But we made a point of engaging the community.”
Dr. Mudge also thought it was important to establish areas of reflection throughout the grounds.
Chief among them was the Breast Cancer Garden of Hope. Located at the trailhead — directly across from UPMC Memorial’s main entrance — the garden provides a space for emotional healing. A local artist created a sculpture of a female butterfly lifting a 6-foot-tall pink ribbon.
“It was very important for me to establish walking paths and areas of emotional solitude and peace,” Dr. Mudge says.
The third and most ambitious phase of UPMC Memorial’s wellness project was yet to come.
‘We Are Impacting People’s Lives’
UPMC Memorial’s three new greenhouses sit along the walking trail. People using the trail can watch the ongoing progress of UPMC Memorial’s farm-to-hospital project.
Setting up the greenhouses and the farm-to-hospital program was the third part of Dr. Mudge’s vision. The greenhouses officially “opened” in November 2023 with the planting of winter crops like lettuce, radishes, and turnips. Harvesting began in January 2024.
UPMC Memorial partnered with local nonprofit York Fresh Food Farms for the greenhouse project. York Fresh Food Farms grows and distributes produce to people in need throughout the community.
Bruce Manns, president, founder, and manager of York Fresh Food Farms, plants the produce in UPMC Memorial’s greenhouses.
The greenhouses are specifically known as high tunnels, with the produce growing in raised beds. UPMC Memorial tapped into the walking trail’s water source for the greenhouses, which use solar power and drip irrigation.
“It’s a controlled environment where you’re watering with drip irrigation, and then the water evaporates, condenses, and precipitates,” Dr. Mudge says. “So, it’s an enclosed microenvironment.”
When harvested, the food goes to the hospital. UPMC Memorial uses it in its cafeteria, in a hospital farmers market, in nutritious meals for patients, and more. Excess produce goes to York Fresh Food Farms for distribution in the community.
The hope is to grow 10,000 pounds of fresh produce each year.
“We are impacting people’s lives by offering a choice,” Bruce says. “(We’re) giving a fresh meal with fresh vegetables grown as locally as you can get it.”
Dr. Mudge also envisions creating healthy cooking classes using the produce and even giving the produce as a “prescription.” That way, people with conditions like diabetes — who require nutritious eating — have access to healthy food.
“We then can encourage wellness, along with recipes that can teach people how to use (the food),” Dr. Mudge says. “You can give a radish to somebody, but if they don’t know how to eat it, what are you going to get out of it?
“So, it’s not just the stuff, but it’s the substance. It’s teaching how to use it to become transformative.”
‘There’s a Buzz of Energy’
Dr. Mudge describes herself as a gnat sometimes — or maybe a bee, always buzzing about the next opportunity.
As UPMC Memorial’s wellness project unfolded, Dr. Mudge had to take a step back sometimes and look at its overall progress.
“There were times that felt very daunting, but there was always hope,” she says. “And I think there were enough people that embraced the concept. We just had to put the pieces together to make it work efficiently.”
Dr. Mudge says the project wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the hospital or the community. And now, with the completion of the greenhouses, the momentum is continuing.
“There’s a buzz of energy about everything that people are seeing,” she says. “This is not just a hospital. It’s a philosophy. And at UPMC Memorial, we take care of the patient, we take care of the family, and we take care of the community.”