BON APPéTIT MANAGEMENT COMPANY

'The Bon Appétit Management Company' is an onsite custom restaurant company that provides café and catering services to corporations, colleges and universities, and specialty venues. The company, based in Palo Alto, CA, operates 400 cafes in 28 states. Bon Appétit has developed programs with Environmental Defense, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch, the Humane Society of the United States, and other conservation organizations [1].

Contents

History

Management

Sustainable Policies

Awards

Partial listing of clients [14]

Notes and references

See also

External links

History

''Company Milestones''

★ Founded in 1987 as a catering company[1]

★ Farm to Fork program for local sourcing since 1999 [2]

★ Sustainable seafood purchasing since 2002 [2]

★ rBGH-free milk purchased as available since 2002 [2]

★ Policy for anitibiotic reduction in chicken adopted in 2003 [2]

★ Initiates policy to reduce antibiotic use in turkeys in 2005 [2]

★ Establishes policy for cage-free shell eggs in 2005 [2]

★ Launches the first annual Eat Local Challenge in 2005 [3]

★ Sponsors Save Seafood campus film tour on ocean conservation in 2005/2006 [4]

★ Drives Compass Group to purchase sustainable seafood in 2006 [5]

★ Move to all "natural" beef burgers in 2007 [6]

★ Launches Low Carbon Diet in 2007 [7]

Management

Fedele Bauccio, CEO

Michael Bauccio, COO

Sustainable Policies

''Farm to Fork''

Farm to Fork is a Bon Appétit company-wide initiative to buy locally. The first choice is to purchase seasonal, regional and organic produce from local farmers and artisan producers within a 150-mile radius. These local products are often served within 48 hours of harvest [2].



''Seafood''

Seafood is purchased in accordance with the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch guidelines for sustainable seafood. Locally-sourced fish is the first choice for seafood and tuna is dolphin-safe [2].



''Meats''

Bon Appétit works with ranchers to reduce the amount of drugs given to poultry, cows and pigs. The company purchases only chicken and turkey breast that has been produced without the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics that belong to classes of compounds approved for use in human medicine. Hamburgers are made with ground “natural” chuck, raised without antibiotics or added hormones on a vegetarian diet. Free-range, organic and grass-fed meats from local sources are served at many locations [6].



''Cage-free eggs''

Bon Appétit purchases cage-free shell eggs at all accounts. These eggs are from sources that meet the animal care standards of Humane Farm Animal Care, an independent farm animal welfare certifying organization [2].



''Dairy''

Milk is free of antibiotics and recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) where available. Local sources are the first choice for dairy purchases [2].



''Circle of Responsibility''
The Circle of Responsibility is an educational program created by Bon Appétit to teach staff and diners about sustainability. After completing a training, café staff members are prepared to engage diners and teach them about the company's core sustainability principles. In addition, each café prominently displays Circle of Responsibility educational tools that help diners identify foods according to the categories of: health, vegetarian, vegan, organic, locally and responsibly sourced [2].



''Fair Trade''

Bon Appétit supports farmers' rights and offers Fair Trade Certified, shade grown and organic coffee options wherever possible [8].







''Eat Local Challenge''

This annual event, starting in 2005, challenges each Bon Appétit restaurant and café to serve a meal made entirely of ingredients from within a 150 mile radius of each kitchen. This includes every facet of the meal, from dairy and protein, with salt as the one exception [3].



''Low Carbon Diet''

The Low Carbon Diet, launched in April 2007, is Bon Appétit’s endeavor to reduce the carbon footprint of all its cafés. Food production -- including processing, transportation, packaging, preparation and waste -- is the single largest human-driven contributor to the greenhouse gases responsible for global climate change [14]. The Low Carbon Diet decreases carbon emissions by reducing use of high-carbon foods such as meat, promoting seasonality, eliminating foreign and bottled water, conducting energy audits of equipment and developing innovative waste management programs. Diners will have the opportunity to calculate and reduce the carbon footprint of their own food choices [7].

Awards

★ Seafood Choices Alliance – 2007

★
★ Fedele Bauccio Honored as Seafood Champion [9]

★ Ecological Society of America – 2005

★
★ Corporate Award for Ethical Business Practices [10]

★ The Humane Society of the United States - 2005

★
★ Praises commitment to cage-free eggs [11]

★ Princeton Review – Multiple years

★
★ #1 College Food Service in the Country [12]

★ SAMCEDA – 2006

★
★ Award of Excellence for Service to the Community[13]

Partial listing of clients [14]

''Corporate Food Service''

adidas America

Best Buy

Cisco

DreamWorks, SKG

eBay

Medtronic

Nordstrom, Inc.

Oracle Corporation

Palm, Inc.

Target Corporation

Yahoo!



''Education Food Service''

American University

Biola University

Case Western Reserve University

Duke University

Dominican University of California

Goucher College

Grove City College

Hamilton College

Lewis & Clark College

Macalester College

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Northwestern College

Oberlin College

Reed College

St. Olaf College

University of Redlands

Washington University in St. Louis

Wesleyan University

Whitman College

Woodbury University



''Specialty Venues''

Acme Chophouse

The Art Institute of Chicago

AT&T Park (Home of the San Francisco Giants)

deYoung Museum

The Getty Center and Villa

Guthrie Theater

Legion of Honor

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Minnesota History Center

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Seattle Art Museum

Notes and references

1. http://www.bamco.com/PressRoom/about-co.htm

2. C'est Bon, Maisie Ganzler of an eco-friendly catering company answers Grist's questions, 23 Oct 2006, http://www.grist.org/comments/interactivist/2006/10/23/ganzler/

3. Today's Eco-Event: "Eat Local Challenge," Erin Courtenay, 29 April, 2005, http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/09/eat_out_eat_loc.php

4. http://www.save-seafood.org/saveseafood.htm

5. Food Service Giant Unveils Sustainable-Seafood Purchase Policy, 21 February, 2006, GreenBiz.com, http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=30433

6. Local Food Company Has Beef With Antiobiotics, Kristina Peterson,
Palo Alto Daily News, 26 March, 2007,
http://www.keepantibioticsworking.com/new/news.cfm?refID=97837

7. Campaign aims to cut emissions:'Low-carbon diet' hopes to take bite out of greenhouse gases, Kristina Peterson, Palo Alto Daily news, 21 April, 2007, http://www.paloaltodailynews.com/article/2007-4-21-04-21-07-pa-carbon-diet

8. Growth of Fair Trade Certification shows more people care about where their food comes from, Haven Borque, Cooperative Grocer, #119, July - August 2005, http://www.cooperativegrocer.coop/articles/index.php?id=600

9. Seafood Business, March 2007, Page 10, http://seafoodbusiness.texterity.com/seafoodbusiness/200703/?pg=12

10. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America,
http://www.esa.org/history/Awards/bulletin/corp2005.pdf

11. Bon Appétit Management Co. Receives National Humane Award, 10 April, 2006
http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/pressrel/bon_appetit_award.html

12. Two Bon Appetit accounts lay claim to best college campus food, Nation's Restaurant News, 17 September, 2001, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_38_35/ai_78547058

13. http://www.samceda.org/Events/2007AwardExcellence/Pastwinners_Awards.html

14. Diet, Energy and Global Warming, Gidon Eshel & Pamela Martin, The Univ. of Chicago
Submitted to Earth Interactions, May 2005

See also

Low Carbon Diet

Organic Food

External links

Bon Appétit Management Company Official Website