“Local” is one of the most reassuring words in food. It evokes images of green rolling hills, pastoral farms, farmers’ markets, and a relatively direct path from field to plate.
But the value of local food is not captured by mileage alone. For Bon Appétit Management Company, that has never been good enough. What matters just as much is transparency: knowing who produced the food, how it was grown or made, and whether our purchasing dollars are going toward the kinds of businesses and communities we want to strengthen. A product can come from just down the road and still tell you very little about these things.
Distance matters. So do size, ownership, and shared values.
Our Definition is Intentionally Narrow
When we launched Farm to Fork in 1999, we were chasing flavor and real connections to the people growing our food. Our chefs wanted ingredients that reflected the places where they were cooking. So, we made a conscious decision to buy from small farms and producers close to our kitchens.
More than 25 years later, Farm to Fork includes more than 1,700 small, owner-operated farms and food businesses across the country. This network exists because our chefs build direct, ongoing relationships with producers, region by region, season after season.
To build such a network with integrity at scale, we had to draw a clear line. Our chefs are tasked with spending at least 20% of their annual food budget with small, owner-operated farms, ranches, and artisan food businesses that are in close proximity to their account.
- Size: Eligible producers must have less than $5 million in annual sales.
- Ownership: Businesses must be owner-operated.
- Proximity: Those partners must be located within 150 miles of the kitchen they serve.
That combination of distance, size, and ownership is what "local" means to Bon Appétit.
It matters that the farm is small.
Small and mid-sized farms lack many of the price guarantees and federal subsidies that support large conventional operations. Recent analysis of USDA Census data shows that farm closures between 2017 and 2022 were concentrated among operations with relatively low sales, reinforcing how vulnerable smaller farms are in a consolidated system. Directing our purchases to businesses under $5 million in annual revenue is one of the most tangible ways we can keep those farms in business and rooted in their communities.
It matters that it is owner-operated.
When the person you meet in the field is also making decisions about wages, equipment and infrastructure investments, and how water and land are managed, you gain visibility into labor practices and environmental stewardship, and you gain a true, collaborative partner in the process.
And it absolutely matters that 20% is our baseline, not our best-case scenario.
Our 20% commitment is written into how we budget, buy, and measure performance, not just how we talk about sustainability. It is tracked and reviewed with our teams for measurable proof on the plate for the clients and guests we serve.
This is also where we diverge from much of the industry. Many food and beverage companies tout “local” or “regional” spend, sometimes even within a similar mileage range. What is often missing are the qualifiers that matter most: how big those suppliers are, who owns them, and whether those dollars are strengthening small, independent farms or simply leveraging the nearest arm of a large company. Our definition of local was built to make that distinction explicit.
Local is about values as much as mileage.
The more we worked with small farmers, the clearer it became that distance alone does not capture what people care about in local food. So, we built nuance into the program.
In addition to core Farm to Fork purchasing, we created:
- Locally Crafted, which supports local makers who align with our social or environmental values, from bakeries and tortilla makers to tofu producers.
- Fish to Fork, which sets a 500-mile sourcing radius, limits on how far boats can travel per trip, and a focus on underutilized species.
- Midsize Humane, which supports mid-sized meat producers that meet strict third-party animal welfare certifications, recognizing they are also squeezed by consolidation.
Those extensions are built on the same premise: local food should reflect a set of values about who benefits from our purchasing power, not only where ingredients are harvested.
