Each September, Bon Appétit teams across the country gear up for Eat Local Challenge, a celebration of local ingredients, and the farmers and artisans who produce them. Since 2005, when Eat Local Challenge first occurred, the event has perhaps been the foremost way Bon Appetit brings attention to local food systems: by sourcing and serving 100% local meals to the delight of our guests across the country.

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Executive Chef Doran Payne’s Culinary Adventure: Celebrating Bon Appétit’s Chef of the Year 2023
Meet Bon Appétit’s nominee for 2023 Chef Appreciation Week Chef of the Year, Doran Payne!

From Cow to Café: Vassar Students Tour Storied Local Dairy Farm
When Bon Appétit Fellow Elise Dudley and over a dozen Vassar College students caravanned out to Amenia, NY earlier this year, they expected to learn firsthand about the dairy industry and meet a storied local Farm to Fork partner. They got even more, including a lesson in emerging cooperative models that protect small dairy farms.

Keeping Hudson Valley Dairy Farmers Milking
In New York’s Hudson Valley, Farm to Fork vendor Hudson Valley Fresh Dairy offers an alternative dairying model that insulates small dairy farmers negative trends impacting the dairy industry.

Urging the Biden Administration to Combat IUU Fishing
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Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is sadly all too commonplace on the open sea. Researchers estimate that one in five wild-caught fish are landed via IUU fishing, leading to more than $30 billion in illegal profit with billions of dollars of losses to the legal global seafood economy. These egregious violations of national and international regulations threaten fisheries and ocean ecosystems and are also associated with horrendous human rights abuses including forced labor and human trafficking, making action to address the issue all the more urgent. For that reason, we at Bon Appétit Management Company have signed an open letter to President Biden asking The White House to take measures to crack down on IUU fishing.

Buying with Purpose: Local Sourcing at Scale with Rancho Llano Seco
Under the leadership of Culinary Director Kristela Nazario-Mendoza, the Bon Appétit Management Company at Chase Center team is putting Bon Appétit’s Farm to Fork program into action at one of the world’s premier sporting arenas.

Transforming Student Food Waste into an Opportunity for Creativity and Reflection
The aroma of pizza crust, orange peels, chicken bones, and half-eaten sandwiches has become an all too familiar scent to Bon Appétit Management Company’s Midwest Fellow Elise Kulers and east coast Fellow Elise Dudley, who have weighed over 1,500 pounds of food waste produced by over 8,500 guests at colleges and universities this year.

Commemorating Juneteenth
Black Americans are still the victims of institutional racism and often unchecked discrimination, and we want to create space in our cafés this Juneteenth for community partners to observe this holiday how they want to.

Farm to Institution Northeast Summit Brings Together Food Systems Professionals
In late April, food system professionals gathered virtually and in person for the annual Northeast Farm to Institution Summit, with Bon Appétiters leading multiple events.

Meet These Five LGBTQ+-owned Businesses Changing the Food System
These LGBTQ+ organizations are just a handful of the many working to create a more inclusive and equitable food system from the farm to the kitchen and beyond.