Bon Appétit Management Company

The Eat Local Challenge (ELC), now in its 19th year, is a little like Christmas at Bon Appétit. Of course, Bon Appétiters celebrate the bounty of local foods year-round, but every September, accounts across the country participate in this one big day that shines a national spotlight on our commitment to supporting local food systems.  

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. 

From dill flowers to heirloom melons and selfies with pigs, the Curtis Institute of Music team got an up-close look at the work of Lancaster Farm Fresh Co-operative farms on a recent trip out into the field.

We’re looking back at the impact of the Healthy Kids in the Bon Appétit Kitchen series of food education classes we held over the past few months for kids all over the country. The Food Education team hosted over 20 classes and reached 400 children this summer.  Hooray for watermelon pizza!

Meet Bon Appétit’s nominee for 2023 Chef Appreciation Week Chef of the Year, Doran Payne!

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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.