Northwestern University
OP-6: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Purchasing locally grown produce is part of Northwestern Dining’s commitment to sustainability and to meeting the University’s needs. Locally grown produce not only ensures fresh, great tasting, and nutritious food, it supports the local communities, including local farmers and artisan producers. Northwestern Dining’s definition of “local” is produce that is grown and delivered in the same state or geographic location.
To meet the University’s needs, Northwestern Dining has a specialized database that matches local farms to distributors in the Midwest region such as Midwest Foods. This “Local Produce Farmer Listing” shows which of the more than 600 farmers in our supplier community are growing the food we serve and whether that food is local, organic, or sustainably grown. This includes produce like potatoes that are purchased locally and processed into fries in house, carrots, tomatoes, squash, and more from farms like Windy City Harvest, Mighty Vines, Garwood Orchards and Parrfection Produce.
In addition to our commitment to increasing our purchase of locally grown produce, Northwestern Dining is working with Real Food at NU (NURF) to reach the goal of 20 percent Real Food by 2020, as outlined in the Real Food Challenge Commitment signed by President Schapiro in 2015. Real Food is defined as food that is produced locally and through systems that are fair, ecologically sound, and humane.
We purchase products from many local producers in Chicagoland such as Tags Bakery and Alpha Baking. We also purchase organic and natural products for purchase in our retail locations such as Stoneyfield Farm smoothies and yogurts, Amy’s Kitchen Natural and Organic frozen meals, and Kashi bars and cereal. In addition, all our residential dining halls now carry Hecky’s Barbeque sauce produced in Evanston. The milk served in the resident dining and retail locations is rBGH & BGH free and purchased locally from Muller Pinehurst Dairy in Rockford, IL and all of our shelled eggs are cage-free in residential and retail dining locations across campus.

Northwestern Dining is dedicated to increasing the amount of fairly and responsibly traded products we purchase. By doing so, we encourage a more robust market for fair trade and directly affect the people and environments where these goods are produced. We currently offer a range of products that meet these criteria through Seattle’s Best, Kraft and more.
There are currently two certification systems Northwestern Dining uses to identify fairly and responsibly traded products from tropical regions: Fair Trade Certified and Rainforest Alliance Certified. Fair Trade certifications are granted by TransFair USA and Canada and, nonprofit organizations that are the only independent, third party certifiers of Fair Trade products in both countries and two of 20 members of Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO). TransFair’s rigorous audit system, which tracks products from farm to finished product, verifies industry compliance with Fair Trade criteria and allows companies to display the Fair Trade Certified label on the products that meet strict standards.
Rainforest Alliance certification is a comprehensive process that promotes and guarantees improvements in agriculture and forestry. Under the auspices of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), an international coalition of leading conservation groups, the Rainforest Alliance works with farmers to ensure compliance with the SAN standards for protecting wildlife, wild lands, workers’ rights and local communities. Farms that meet these rigorous standards are awarded the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal.

5 Real Food interns and 1 sustainability intern at Northwestern Dining are tasked with examining purchasing invoices and isolating sustainable purchases for various categories, including locally grown and produced products, organic, humane, fair trade and MSC fish. The Real Food interns then assemble reports of each quarter and year to see how much of our overall purchasing qualifies as "sustainable." Northwestern Dining also utilizes various tools for tracking such as 5 Real Food interns and 1 sustainability intern at Northwestern Dining are tasked with examining purchasing invoices and isolating sustainable purchases for various categories, including locally grown and produced products, organic, humane, fair trade and MSC fish. The Real Food interns then assemble reports of each quarter and year to see how much of our overall purchasing qualifies as "sustainable." Northwestern Dining also utilizes various tools for tracking such as Market Connection’s, Midwest Foods velocity reports for local purchasing and internal excel tracking.

Currently working to get all dining facilities green restaurant certified