Bon Appétit Management Company

As Hurricane Sandy barreled toward the coast, businesses and entire cities shut down to brace themselves for what was to come. But college dining halls don’t have that luxury. College students are already “at home,” and – no matter the weather — need to be fed. And local farmers and fishermen need to be able to sell their harvest.

This year I went trekking in the Himalayas of Nepal. Here are a few of the things I witnessed and how the experience sometimes turned my views on our sustainability commitments on their side.

Students at the University of Redlands spend a week each semester to host fun activities that raise environmental awareness and inspire action on campus. The most recent Green Week coincided with Food Day so Bon Appétit was invited to co-host an event with a coalition of environmental organizations that focused on waste and the food system. Students and staff strung 1,050 disposable to-go boxes around Hunsaker Plaza to show people how much ends up in the landfill every day on campus and the students asked people to pledge to only use to-go boxes when actually on the go.

The idea for the event was conceived when students learned that on average 5,250 disposable to-go boxes end up in the landfill each week and approximately $25,000 is spent on those boxes each semester!

Earlier this month, Macalester College became the tenth school in the country — and the second Bon Appétit education client — to sign a Real Food Campus Commitment. The commitment, which was developed by the student-led nonprofit group Real Food Challenge, is a pledge that commits school administrators to formally prioritizing real food* through increasing procurement of such food as well as community engagement and transparency around food issues.

Redlands Conservancy’s Emerald Necklace Program is an ambitious project, long in the works, that will preserve open space as well as Redland’s agricultural heritage. The program kicked off with a celebratory event catered by Bon Appétit at University of Redlands in Redlands, CA.

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.

Food Day is an annual nationwide celebration of healthy, affordable, and sustainable food, and a movement to create more of it. This Thursday, October 24, Bon Appétit locations all across America will proudly celebrate Food Day and its five principles. We’re encouraging our guests to get involved by growing some of their own food, and if they’re students, encouraging them to join Campus Farmers!

When farmer Brenton Johnson first started out, his “farm” was literally his backyard in Austin, TX. In less than three years, he expanded out of his backyard and grew to serve over 1,000 neighbors through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.

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.

Each quarter, Bon Appétit at SAP in Palo Alto,CA, offers a complimentary cooking class led by Café Three Chef/Manager Robert Perez. Past hands on courses have included pozole, fresh salsas, aguas frescas, and Asian spring rolls.