Blog: Fair Trade

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In 2015, Bon Appétit became the first food service company to commit to sourcing 100% Fair Trade Certified tea in our cafés. We partnered with Oakland, CA based Numi Tea to make this commitment a reality.  

Over time, Valentine’s Day changed from a day to celebrate martyrs named Valentine to a romantic day filled with hearts, flowers, cards, and of course, chocolate. But in the past few years, chocolate production has been under public scrutiny because of numerous reports about human trafficking and child labor associated with growing and harvesting cacao. Just as Valentine’s Day has evolved, it’s time to change our chocolate habits and support organizations with fair, humane, and sustainable practices.

Last fall I had the pleasure of traveling to beautiful Colombia to visit the birthplace of the delicious Fair Trade Certified™ Cordillera chocolate with which Bon Appétit Management Company chefs bake. Now that I’ve gone over the basics in my first post and told you all about farming cacao in my second, I can now talk about the social responsibility aspect of the business.

This past fall I traveled to beautiful Colombia to visit the birthplace of the delicious Fair Trade Certified™ Cordillera chocolate with which Bon Appétit Management Company chefs bake. In this second post of the series, I share some of the details of my visits to cacao farms.

Chocolate is such an integral part of American culture, and I too believe that little in this world can beat a bite of really fantastic chocolate. Well, I’m happy to report that getting to see where chocolate comes from, and learning all about how it’s grown and processed, actually gave consuming the finished product a run for its money. In October I had the immense pleasure of traveling to central Colombia to visit the birthplace of the delicious Fair Trade Certified™ Cordillera chocolate with which Bon Appétit Management Company chefs bake.

Conscientious consumers rely on third-party-certified labeling programs such as organic, which reassures us that those products were grown without toxic pesticides or using genetically engineered seeds, and Certified Humane, which tells us that the animals we’re eating were raised ethically. But neither of those labels tells us anything about how the people behind the products were treated. That’s why the Fair Trade Certified™ label is so important. October is Fair Trade month, and we at Bon Appétit Management Company are proud to have partnered with Fair Trade USA to help raise awareness.