Bon Appétit Management Company

East Coast Fellow at Duke University! Two weeks ago was college visit number three, Duke University. On Monday night, I went to the Dusdac meeting (Duke’s Dining Committee) and met with a lively, rambunctious group of students. They asked questions like “Just to play devil’s advocate, WHY should I care about those hens anyway?” Another highlight from the Dusdac meeting was that I got to talking with an Assistant Professor/Nutritionist at Duke (who had attended the meeting), and she liked my presentation so much she asked me to come back and give a lecture in one of her classes! Tuesday night was the Story Behind the Food event. The group was extremely attentive, and there was a nice range of interests—animal rights, reusable containers on campus, an enviro awareness group, on-campus gardens, etc. They asked well-informed, intelligent questions, and Nate […]

02/12/10   Last week was “Food Week: Eat to Live” at the University of Pennsylvania. The students at Penn truly stepped up to the plate, not only helping to coordinate one event, but 6!! It was truly a spectacular week, full of delicious food and passion for food issues.   Here’s how it all happened: In December I was connected with Professor Mary Summers, who teaches “Politics of Food”. Professor Summers, in turn, connected me with about 20 very determined student activists—most of them didn’t know each other, but all cared about different food issues. A few of them had been throwing around the idea of doing an entire week of Food issues at Penn, but nothing concrete had yet materialized. We did a giant conference call; I told them I’d be there the week of Feb 1—and Food Week […]

As the East Coast Fellow for Bon Appétit Management Company, I recently went to Washington University in St. Louis to work on a project related to sustainable food sourcing. While there, I realized it takes a lot of people to make “sustainable food” a reality. So, here’s a little tribute to the Bon Appétit folks at WashU, working to get good food on students’ plates. Enjoy!

I just started my fellowship with Bon Appétit Management Company after completing a farm apprenticeship at the University of California Santa Cruz. In my first vlog, I talk about what I take away from my time at the farm and what’s exciting to me as the West Coast Fellow. Thank you for watching and I hope you’ll stay tuned throughout the year! -Vera Chang, West Coast Fellow

The Bon Appétit Management Company Fellows have just started making trips out to visit farms and colleges in Bon Appétits supply chain. Recently, we went to visit New Morning Farm in Pennsylvania and Bon Appétits cafés at American University in D.C. As such, I thought Id give a little video tour of some of the produce that college students like those at AU are eating. So here you go! Bon Appétit produce, from Farm to Fork.

In my last vlog, I talked about a few food issues that stand out to me as some of the bigger challenges we face. In this vlog, I talk about two of those issues—the depletion of wild seafood and climate change—and give suggestions of what we as consumers can do to make a difference.

Most of my work for Bon Appétit this past month and a half has been research-oriented. Since I’m going to be working with farmers and speaking to students about issues of food sustainability, I need to understand the issues themselves well. Here are a few facts I’ve learned thus far… More to come in my next vlog!

Why buy local? Bon Appétit Management Company believes there are 2 main reasons to buy local: (1) In order to support local communities and farmers, and (2) because local, seasonal food simply tastes better. A common misconception about “buying local” is that it automatically means fewer greenhouse gas emissions. However, while it’s true that there are fewer CO2 emissions from transportation when buying local food, that’s not the whole story… For more information about local food and Bon Appétit’s Eat Local Challenge, check out this vlog!

(This vlog was inspired by a conversation I had with my cousin last week.) Part of our job as Fellows this year is going to be speaking with students at universities and trying to raise awareness about issues of food sustainability. I’m excited about this aspect of our job because I’ve always been a big believer in raising awareness. But I have to admit that I often find myself asking whether raising awareness is really the best way to make social change happen. The fact is, in today’s world we’re all very busy… So does that mean we’re too busy to spend time trying to change our world? Or are activists correct in believing that if you can just get the information out to people, they’ll care, and they’ll do something about it?

I ate Bon Appétit food at WashU in St. Louis for four years—and I guess my accumulated knowledge of Bon Appétit by the time I graduated just goes to show that just because you put something in your mouth doesn’t mean you know a THING about it. So here are my very first impressions of “the Real Bon Appétit”…of finally diving into the “real world”, and the truth about salmon…