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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!
Jeff Thurston has been at this for a while. Compass and Bon Appétit Management Company’s 2024 Chef of the Year has been working in restaurants since he was a teenager growing up in Toronto. It didn’t take long for the energy of restaurants to grab hold of Jeff. Over 30 years later, he still thrives off the action in the back of the house and the buzz of guests in the front of the house.
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.
When Najeeb Muhaimin approached Nicholas Walker, director of operations at Emory University, about buying the hibiscus products and pastured Halal chickens he was raising at Pride Road Farm, his poultry and hibiscus operation in Shady Dale, Georgia, Walker’s immediate response was: “Let’s make it work.”
Red’s Best was founded in 2008 by Jared (Red) Auerbach, a fisherman and entrepreneur who’d worked on boats in Alaska and Cape Cod and had noticed how small-scale fishermen were struggling to manage shifts in the regulatory landscape and in the ocean itself. They’ve been a partner for years, introducing many of our universities to lesser-known species with their fish of the day program.
Wagon Coffee was started in 2020 by Tami Canaday, a former barista who moved up the corporate ladder in the coffee industry over 20 years before striking out on her own. She started her company as a way to support the recovery community that she and her husband Ryan help nurture in the Denver area through their non-profit, called FREE Recovery Community.
Outside of Hood River, Oregon, fruit trees sprawl across acres and acres of bucolic landscape of the Columbia River Gorge. Sam Asai and his family have been tending their orchard here for generations.
Sam, whose grandparents emigrated from Japan in the early 20th century, owns and operates the orchard together with his family. Sam’s grandparents purchased some of the land that now makes up A&J’s acreage in the 1900s, raising their family and establishing their first fruit trees.
Kudos to the leadership and team for a successful run at Birmingham Southern College – way to show up for your guests and each other all the way to the end!