Bon Appétit Management Company

This fall, teams from Willamette University and Lewis & Clark College joined the Oregon chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation for the Foundation’s Fall Festival. From pumpkin decorating to crown-making and games, magic was made at this community-building event.  

Each year, National Seafood Month is a time to affirm our ongoing commitment to sourcing seafood sustainably and to our partners who make that a reality in our cafés across the country. In addition to aligning with Seafood Watch guidelines, we encourage our chefs to seek out sustainable seafood that’s locally caught or raised.  

Our partner, Numi, provides us with assorted herbal and caffeinated Fair Trade Certified teas, ensuring fair wages, safe working conditions, and community development premiums to support health, education, and infrastructure projects. They work closely with farm partners around the world, sourcing 130+ organic ingredients from more than 34 countries, guaranteeing traceable ingredients and positive outcomes for tea workers and their communities.   

Every October, Bon Appétit Management Company recognizes Fair Trade Month by educating our guests about the importance of the internationally recognized certification for ethically made products, which supports equitable global supply chains.  

For our Eat Local Challenge’s 20th anniversary, accounts across the country Bon Appetit teams brought their A-game to the fun and delicious celebration of the program, the partnerships, and of course, the food. Teams kept things fresh this year by adding pre-promotional activities, trivia, raffles, and giveaways to engage our guests. Read on to hear about all the friends and flavors that came together for the 20th anniversary of ELC!  

In honor of the 25th anniversary of Farm to Fork, our groundbreaking local sourcing program, we’ve synthesized our many lessons learned into a white paper, Sowing Success: Local Food Purchasing Insights from 25 Years of the Farm to Fork Program.

We’re thrilled to share the newest issue of Bravo – affectionately known as the “almost-quarterly newsletter of Bon Appetit Management Company,” which went on hiatus during the pandemic. Today, it’s back with a new format but the same commitment to celebrating our people and their accomplishments. Check it out!

In 2010, the Bon Appétit Management Company team at the University of Pennsylvania struck up a partnership with The Common Market, a new non-profit organization dedicated to building sustainable and equitable local food systems. Nearly 15 years later, Bon Appétit and The Common Market have grown together, with Bon Appétit-served colleges, universities, cultural institutions, and corporate headquarters sourcing from The Common Market in Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, Texas, Illinois, and beyond. Here’s the story of how the partnership, centered around shared values, grew from one metro region on the East Coast to span half of the United States. 

The cows of our Farm to Fork partners at Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company have a pretty awesome view. Situated at the southern tip of Tomales Bay in Marin County, California, the farm’s residents look out over the long, narrow bay to the Point Reyes peninsula, one of the most ecologically diverse (and breathtakingly beautiful) places in the country.  

The St. Olaf College Garden Research and Organic Works (STOGROW) and the Carleton Student Organic Farm employ rotating summer student interns each year, who grow thousands of pounds of produce, all of which is purchased by Bon Appétit for the schools’ respective cafés. The farms, which are both just 1.5 acres, have an outsized impact, serving as hubs for experiential learning and community-building.