Bon Appétit Management Company

Bon Appétit is enacting waste reduction initiatives companywide — and while the leadership role is comfortable, making the action a partnership feels even more agreeable. Bon Appétit at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL, partnered with student government to promote going trayless.

Watch out California, there’s a new “green” college in town — one you might not have encountered! At Marymount California University in Los Angeles (formerly known as Marymount College), Bon Appétit General Manager Donna Novotney and Executive Chef Luis Jimenez have worked closely with the college’s sustainability officer, Kathleen Talbot, to tackle waste in the dining hall head on. In one semester they’ve gone trayless, phased out Styrofoam to-go containers, successfully implemented a reusable to-go container program, started a student garden, and launched a living herb wall!

Small, organic farms and bikes attract the same sort of fans, it appears — both are undeterred by inclement weather. Despite chilly rain, over a hundred students and community members came together for a bicycle-powered celebration of local farms, the second annual Farm Bike Tour, in Northfield, MN,

he Daily Meal’s 2013 list of the 60 Best Colleges for Food in America is out — and Bon Appétit Management Company operates 13 of them! These are schools that “refuse to accept the stigma that comes with collegiate dining, taking the ordinary campus meal and turning it into an extraordinary dining experience.”

The team members at Albion College in Albion, MI, were ready to focus on expanding their Farm to Fork program. Midwest Fellow S.K. Piper spent a few days there teaching the team how to enroll Farm to Fork vendors.

On Tuesday, September 24, all of our 500-plus cafés will offer a 100% local meal — everything from oils to grains to spices and sweeteners must be sourced from within 150 miles. The only foreigner allowed is salt. Some locations get a little loco and offer a 100% local menu — multiple all-local dishes!

Congratulations to the Bon Appétit Management Company team at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR, which has achieved gold certification from the City of Portland’s Sustainability at Work program, recognizing its leadership in helping make Portland one of the cleanest, most sustainable cities in the country.

In an effort to make “the highest quality local food available to the widest audience at the lowest prices possible,” farmer Scot Laney collaborated with other sustainable Oregon producers to start a local distribution program, Eat Oregon First.

By Rebecca Repp, Bon Appétit Director of Catering and Brand Programs at Regis University in Denver. I met Scott Richter, Bon Appétit general manager and executive chef at WhiteWave Foods in Broomfield, CO, a few summers ago when we were opening the Regis University account. This summer we married, joining the ranks of those who met their life partners at Bon Appétit. A value we share with Bon Appétit and each other is volunteering, so we decided to share our honeymoon — or post-wedding adventure — with my new stepchildren, Brook and Avry, by volunteering in Nicaragua.

As a company, we rely on third party certifications to assure ourselves and our guests that the commitments we make are meaningful and are being met. When I heard that Bon Appétit chefs at Johns Hopkins University had started sourcing Certified Humane chicken from Murray’s Chicken, I jumped at the chance to learn more about what the certification means for the well-being of the chickens, our health and the environment.