If there’s one thing about the Bon Appétit Management Company that makes them stand out it’s the huge amount of effort they put into striving for sustainability on the St. Edward’s University campus. One of the biggest ways they do this is by always having the freshest ingredients available for meal preparation along with choosing local farmers and companies for their product needs. One way they do this is through the Farm to Fork program, in which Bon Appétit reaches out to farmers within 150 miles of the kitchen in order to purchase locally-grown fruits and vegetables. The Farm to Fork program also allows them to rotate between produce items that are in season, resulting in the best possible fresh products being served to the St. Edward’s community.
Bon Appétit doesn’t stop there; the Fish to Fork program, similar to Farm to Fork, follows the strict Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch List. This list ranks fish in three categories: red, yellow, and green. When fish fall into the red category they’re overfished or caught or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment. Yellow or green-rated indicate healthier, more plentiful alternatives, and are the only fish that Bon Appétit purchases. Supporting environmentally-responsible, small, local fish farmers and truly sustainable fishing companies was major motivation for this initiative.
Bon Appétit is making great strides for sustainability with these initiatives because they are helping to preserve biodiversity, open space, and are assisting local farmers and fishermen by investing money in our community.
-Lalo Jasso
Class of 2016
SFS Member