At Merit Medical, we’re dedicated to reducing our environmental footprint. That’s why we take steps at each of our facilities to create a culture of innovation that lessens our impact on the world around us. A prime example of how we achieve this can be seen at our Salt Lake City facility, where we have established a community garden that provides farm-to-table nutrition for employees and the facility café.
As we head into Spring—and begin the 2021 garden season—we’d like to take a moment to reflect on all the Merit Community Garden accomplished in 2020.
EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION
445 Departments
About 160 employees participated in growing their own produce in an assigned garden box at the Merit community garden, representing 45 different departments. One-third of gardeners participated for the first time.
300 Visits
Nearly 150 employees, from 52 departments across Merit, visited the U-Pick portion of the garden, where they could exchange weeding and cultivating services for a basket of fresh produce, totaling almost 300 visits.
3000 Pounds
More than 3,000 pounds of produce was distributed to U-Pick participants.
HOMEGROWN GOODNESS
Approximately 9,000 plants were grown in the Merit greenhouse, 4,000 of which were purchased by employees.
Cut flower orders doubled in 2020, with 160 arrangements prepared for employees.
A total of 1,600 plants were grown for the Merit Salt Lake City landscaping department.
FARM-TO-TABLE NUTRITION
Although most of the café produce was diverted to the U-Pick section in 2020, the garden still provided almost 400 pounds of produce to the Merit Café.
WASTE REDUCTION
Six tons of green waste was taken to the Trans-Jordan Landfill to make compost.
GIVING BACK
Plant sales raised $13,000 for the Candy Cane Program to help those in need during the holiday season.
Nearly 300 pounds of produce was donated to low-income senior centers.
All inedible produce was donated to farm animals at Roots Charter School, a nonprofit alternative high school in Salt Lake City.
We thank the Merit Community Garden Project team for making 2020 such a success, and we look forward to an even greener 2021 garden season!
Learn more about the Merit Community Garden.
See what the Merit Community Garden is up to by following them on Facebook.