The rules are simple: All elements of the meal must be grown, harvested, milled, raised, or produced locally — the only exception is salt.
Each September, Eat Local Challenge is a chance for our chefs to flex their creativity while emphasizing our year-round support for our local farmers and foodsheds. The annual event’s inspiration is grounded in a legacy of pursuing a resilient food future through ongoing, institutional support of local food systems and producers. Our Farm to Fork Program, which was created in 1999, tasks all our teams with spending at least 20% of their food budget on small, owner-operated farms, ranches, and artisan food businesses within 150 miles of our kitchens.
This year, the celebration will take place on Tuesday, September 22nd, and our theme celebrates foodsheds, the flourishing networks of food producers our teams rely on every day. As we challenge our chefs to build a 100% local plate, the importance of our regional foodsheds reminds us of their role in creating resilient relationships, communities, and ecosystems.
Eat Local Challenge's inspiration is grounded in a legacy of pursuing a resilient food future through ongoing, institutional support of local food systems and producers.
The geographic range of foodsheds spans the land where food is grown, the routes it travels, and the markets and tables where it arrives. The term can apply to national and global food systems, as access to products like coffee, winter citrus, imported spices, and chocolate relies on global foodsheds that can stretch for thousands of miles. However, localized foodsheds are especially helpful for describing and understanding specific regional food contexts.
Resilient local food networks, like the ones our culinary teams rely on for diverse and consistent local food, require efficient supply chains, smaller-scale distribution, and strong community relationships. This localized approach ensures that communities and economies can absorb environmental and economic shocks without severe supply chain disruptions, adapting quickly to changing needs and challenges.
Localized foodsheds also inherently encourage farming practices that restore soil health, increase biodiversity, and conserve local water systems. This builds a foundation better equipped to handle climate impacts like droughts or extreme rainfall. Strengthening a regional foodshed retains food dollars within the local economy, building valuable networks of producers that collectively nourish the community.
A flourishing foodshed relies on the strong presence of local food producers, regional distributors like food hubs, and reliable market channels for these goods. Our chefs and culinary teams, in turn, rely on foodsheds to achieve our year-round local purchasing goals, which is affirmed during Eat Local Challenge. This year, we’re excited to celebrate the importance of the local foodsheds that make it all possible.
