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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.

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.

In 2010 the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians came together to set up the Salmon Marketing Program. The program buys fish caught by tribal members on tribal land, pays the fishermen a sustainable living wage, processes the fish at a facility owned and operated by the community, and then distributes the products itself to ensure the integrity of the process. The program has expanded to new markets — and Bon Appétit is proud to be a customer.

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.

Today the Food Recovery Network, a student run organization dedicated to recovering leftover food from college campuses to give to those in need, will be rolling out the newest resource for their organizing toolkit: A Guide to Food Recovery for Chefs and Managers (PDF). Bon Appétit Management Company is proud to have partnered with FRN to create this resource, which is specifically designed to help campus dining services at schools around the country — not just Bon Appétit ones — work with students to launch food recovery programs.