Changing the way chefs and consumers think about food
The Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation is an operating foundation whose mission is to educate consumers, institutional purchasers, and culinarians about how their food choices affect the global environment, local economies, and the quantity and quality of healthy food, now and for future generations, and to activate them to make change. Our goal is no less than transforming the purchasing practices of the food services industry – and changing the underlying dynamics of the food web.
In 2005, the Foundation’s first year of operation, we used a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to host The Save Seafood Tour
in partnership with the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program.
We made presentations to more than 1,000 Bon Appétit guests and 400 Bon
Appétit kitchen staffers at 20 locations about seafood choices and their
connection to maintaining healthy oceans. The Making Waves Project
followed, which was an effort to encourage other food companies to
change their seafood buying practices and to be consistent with
internationally recognized conservation standards. We’re proud to say
that as a result of our work, a resolution was adopted by the board of
our parent company, Compass Group, in November 2005 to phase in new
purchasing standards for seafood. This change in purchasing practices
affects more than 1 million pounds of seafood each year.
Subsequent activities:
• The Low Carbon Diet (2007) and Calculator (2008) - Connecting the food system to climate change
• The BAMCO Foundation Fellows Program (2009)
• The Student Garden Guide (2009)
• TEDxFruitvale: Harvesting Change (2011)
• Campus Farmers Network (2012)
The
Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation is organized as a nonprofit
California public benefit corporation and is only partly funded by the
Company. We have been awarded tax-exempt status as a 501(c)3 public
benefit corporation and can accept individual and corporate donations.
Alternatively, a donor may contribute to our mission by supporting one
of our tax-exempt partners and designating funds for specific projects.