Mills College
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Please note that the vendors included as institution affirmed are enrolled in Bon Appétit’s Farm to Fork program. The program requires that vendors be small (under $5 million revenue), local (within 150 miles) and owner-operated. Organic certification isn’t required, because we believe that small, owner-operated farms, where the owner is involved in the day to day operation of the farm operate much differently than large mono-cropped farms. Locally Crafted, a program within Farm to Fork, was created for locally owned businesses creating artisan food products (such as tofu) from local or third party certified ingredients. Farm to Fork vendors have been visited by members of the Bon Appétit team in person; some during the enrollment process and some on a more regular basis. You can read more about Farm to Fork requirements at http://www.bamco.com/timeline/farm-to-fork/.
We cook from scratch, including stocks, sauces, and most salad dressings. In order to calculate plant-based foods, we started with total food and beverage spend and removed the following: beef, turkey, pork, chicken, eggs, dairy, seafood, processed cereals, dessert mixes, soda, energy drinks, mayonnaise, packaged snack foods, and bottled water. What remains is spend on fresh fruits and vegetables, canned vegetables (example: canned tomato puree), frozen fruits and vegetables, oils, grains, beans/legumes, spices, and nuts.

Sustainability is at the heart of the food and beverage program managed by Bon Appetit @ Mills College. We have a goal to source at least 20% of ingredients, by dollar, from small, local, owner operated farmers and artisans; prioritize plant-based proteins in the café and offer vegetarian options at every meal; cook from scratch, including stocks, sauces, and soups; prevent and minimize waste in a number of ways; purchase only cage-free and third party certified eggs, pork raised without the use of gestation crates, and ground beef from Certified Humane operations or small, local farmers. Our seafood is never airfreighted, and is purchased in accordance with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Guidelines for Sustainability, and we’ve been at the forefront of the right for farmworkers rights – including hosting an annual National Farmworker Awareness Week on campus. Last but not least, we communicate with guests through menus in the café's and through our guest facing website (www.cafebonappetit.com) in order to share our sustainability related policies, the local farms we source from and their distance from the campus, and menu items with sustainability and wellness related icons that relay information related to each of these standards.

Please see Mills STARS 2.2 Food and Beverage inventory worksheet.

Additional website URL where information about the food and beverage purchasing program is available: mills.cafebonappetit.com

There are vending services on campus, but they are not included in this report.