Yale New Haven Hospital and Rock and Wrap It Up! launch Hospital Wrap!

New Haven, CT – July 31, 2013 - Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) and Rock and Wrap It Up! have teamed up to launch Hospital Wrap! This sustainability program recovers food that has been prepared but not served from YNHH and donates it to those in need throughout the South Central Connecticut area.

Beginning this month, YNHH will donate food through the Hospital Wrap! program to the Community Soup Kitchen at Christ Church and St. Luke's Episcopal Church in New Haven as well as St. Ann's Soup Kitchen in Hamden. The food will be collected and dispersed through their agencies. The program will also eventually provide these agencies with support to help decrease landfill use.

"We are proud to be the first area hospital to help kick-off Hospital Wrap," said Richard D'Aquila, president and chief operating officer, YNHH. "This program is an obvious win for all involved. Area agencies receive much needed food donations which helps their clients in need and YNHH reduces waste while sharing a very valuable asset with the community. We are pleased Rock and Wrap It Up! asked us to partner with them on this important initiative."

YNHH has many programs in place to help support the residents of the communities it serves. By partnering in the initial launch of Hospital Wrap!, YNHH is demonstrating best practices that benefit both the local and greater community and encouraging other hospitals to join the initiative in their areas as well.

Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH), part of Yale New Haven Health, is a nationally recognized, 1,541-bed, not-for-profit hospital serving as the primary teaching hospital for the Yale School of Medicine (YSM). Founded as the fourth voluntary hospital in the U.S. in 1826, today, YNHH has two New Haven-based campuses, and also includes Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital and Smilow Cancer Hospital. YNHH has received Magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the nation’s highest honor of nursing excellence. YNHH has a combined medical staff of about 4,500 university and community physicians practicing in more than 100 specialties. www.ynhh.org