Stanford University
OP-6: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Serving seasonal, sustainable, healthy and culturally diverse food, R&DE offers options and accommodates food preferences for a diverse student, faculty, staff, and visitor population. R&DE is committed to meaningfully participating in the education of the world’s future leaders by sharing knowledge and creating awareness of food culture, food systems, and food production. R&DE serves foods that are grown using sound environmental practices and encourage biodiversity with earth friendly systems from farms that respect the land and are committed to ensuring our future generation's food supply without compromise. Below is a list of R&DE Stanford Dining’s sustainable purchasing commitments; these are products that we always buy. • Preference for organic and local products (in 2013 46% of our produce was organic or local) • Organic apples (#1 on the Dirty Dozen) • Organic, local spring mix from Earthbound Farms • Organic tofu • Cage-free eggs (all eggs- liquid and whole) from Wilcox Farms • Monterey Bay Aquarium “good” and “best” choice seafood • Wild Alaskan salmon from Taku River Reds • Grass-fed hamburger patties from Bartels Farm • Fair Trade coffee (regular and decaf) from Starbucks • Pork butt from Niman Ranch (raised outdoors, vegetarian diet, no hormones or antibiotics) New in 2013-14 • Organic, local herbs (basil, Thai basil, mint, rosemary & thyme) from Jacobs Farm • Organic, local swiss chard from Coke Farm • Organic, local milk (all but chocolate milk) from Straus Family Creamery • Tuna fish from American Tuna (Seafood Watch “Best Choice”) • Organic & local chopped romaine from Earthbound Farms R&DE Stanford Hospitality and Auxiliaries buys grass-fed beef from Bartels Farm, Marin Sun Farms, and Painted Hills Natural Beef, local, cage free eggs from Glaum Egg Ranch in Santa Cruz County, seafood approved by Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch and NOAA Fishwatch, local, free range chickens from Mary’s Chicken and Petaluma Poultry, and organic produce from many local farms. This past year, we added humanely raised pork ribs to the concessions at the Stanford football stadium.

R&DE Stanford Dining has a full-time sustainable food program manager who runs the Sustainable Food Program. The Sustainable Food Program is a collaborative effort that includes strategic partnerships with vendors and suppliers, students, staff, faculty and other campus stakeholders. Through these partnerships, the Sustainable Food Program seeks to create positive impact across these main areas: purchasing and reporting within established budgets and sustainability guidelines; education and outreach by lecturing, teaching, hosting sustainability events, training staff and acting as subject matter experts; collaboration with various groups, including students, R&DE division partners, faculty, community partners, and supply chain partners; sustainable operations include kitchen sustainability audits and food waste reduction; and wellness and culinary excellence. Sustainability and wellness go hand-in-hand, and often the freshest, seasonal, sustainably grown ingredients are not only more nutritious, but also taste better. The program is aligned with the themes of sustainability, wellness and education through the components of our EatWell program.

R&DE Stanford Dining and R&DE Stanford Hospitality and Auxiliaries both use an enterprise software called EATEC to order products and to generate reports. Our Sustainable Food Program Manager also uses velocity reports from the suppliers to keep track of our sustainable purchases.

Note: Stanford has already surpassed the Real Food Campus Commitment (20% by 2020), so the university did not feel obligated to sign the commitment.