Blog: Farm to Fork

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In 2010 the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians came together to set up the Salmon Marketing Program. The program buys fish caught by tribal members on tribal land, pays the fishermen a sustainable living wage, processes the fish at a facility owned and operated by the community, and then distributes the products itself to ensure the integrity of the process. The program has expanded to new markets — and Bon Appétit is proud to be a customer.

As a company, we rely on third party certifications to assure ourselves and our guests that the commitments we make are meaningful and are being met. When I heard that Bon Appétit chefs at Johns Hopkins University had started sourcing Certified Humane chicken from Murray’s Chicken, I jumped at the chance to learn more about what the certification means for the well-being of the chickens, our health and the environment.

Ronnybrook Farm Dairy invites all of their customers to visit their picturesque farm in the heart of the Hudson Valley. Bon Appétit chefs at Wesleyan University in Middleton, CT, who buy milk, yogurt and frozen yogurt from Ronnybrook, decided to take them up on the offer, and bring along a group of Wesleyan students studying environmental science.

Through their Farm to Fork purchases, Goucher College Resident District Manager Norman Zwagil and his team are supporting positive change in the tides of agriculture in the Chesapeake Bay region — and one such purchasing relationship is with Big City Farms, a half-acre of greenhouses right in the middle of Baltimore, built on top of an old parking lot .

Missouri was the first stop in the 10-state Young Farmers Screening Series for American Meat, a documentary that looks evenhandedly at both the industrial and the pastoral sides of the U.S. meat system. Bon Appétit at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, kicked off the screening with a grass-fed beef barbecue for 325 attendees, who stayed for a panel discussion and special announcement.

Organized by Midwest Fellow S.K. Piper and students at Carleton, St. Olaf, and Macalester Colleges, the seven-farm bike tour and closing party was completely free for participants, funded by in-kind donations and community grants that Piper helped the student organizers secure, with the food cost being covered by the Bon Appétit teams at the three schools.