Conquering "Can't-Be-Done" Thinking

Chef Kimberley Triplett stands in a farm field

Chefs meet farmers through the Farm to Fork program.

For many in volume foodservice, the idea of purchasing from local farmers and suppliers sounds appealing but ultimately unworkable. How can a small farm meet a large company's needs? Who wants to call 10 suppliers and oversee 10 deliveries when you can make a single call to a broadline distributor?

But Bon Appétit Management Company's successful Farm to Fork program proves that sustainable practices can work on a large scale. This major California-based foodservice company, which serves 55 million meals a year around the country, challenges its chefs to buy from within a 150-mile radius.

Marc Zammit, the company's director of culinary support and development, helps the Bon Appétit chefs build relationships with local farms, preferably organic growers. Supporting small local farms is just good business, the company figures, because without them, food quality suffers. When a local farm fails or is lost to development, the chef's job gets harder.

Case Study: Bon Appétit Management Company

In the fall of 2005, Bon Appétit's launched its "Eat Local Challenge," a company-wide initiative. On a specified day in September, every chef at every account was required to serve a complete meal using only local ingredients, salt excepted. Signage alerted diners to the program, and an information table set up at every account provided handouts on the benefits of eating locally. Many chefs went way beyond: some made their entire salad bar local or offered multiple locally sourced entrees. One can-do team of Oregon chefs even made their own salt from sea water.

Case Study: Stanford University

Rafi Taherian, executive director of Stanford Dining, says that pressure from students prompted him to look at buying more produce from small local farms. "Initially, it was very problematic," says Taherian. "We needed the reliability that we had with the broadliners. And another inhibitor was price."

But conversations with farmers eventually led to an agreement to purchase product from a group of 27 local growers. The program worked so well that the farmers have expanded production. "Last year, we gave them our produce report and said, ‘Whatever you can produce, we guarantee we'll purchase from you,'" says Taherian. And now his broadline distributor has offered to deliver those items. Talk about a win-win situation.

Stanford diners notice the difference, says Taherian.