Evaluating farms to assess sustainability and labor practices
In 2009, Bon Appétit Management Company launched our fellows program to learn about labor practices throughout the entire supply chain. The three fellows are recent college graduates who were sustainability champions on their campuses and represent the West Coast, Midwest, and East Coast regions. They work directly with farmers around the country to assess overall sustainability and to gather information about the best practices used on both small, owner-operated farms and conventional large-scale farms that currently supply products to Bon Appétit kitchens. Their reporting will be used by Bon Appétit to determine how we can work with our long-time Farm to Fork small-operator partners and larger conventional suppliers to ensure that the entire supply chain is as safe, efficient, and fair to farmers and farm workers as possible.
Bon Appétit’s fellows program allows us to involve young people in a way that invests in both these deserving graduates and the farmers who have fed them throughout their college years. This work results in a deeper understanding of the issues facing farmers and suppliers, and helps Bon Appétit define a viable approach to farm worker justice as the another link in the chain of sustainability from farm to table.