Lewis & Clark College Goes for the Gold in Sustainability
Lewis & Clark College’s Executive Chef Scott Clagett spoke to guests with Charlie Harris of Flamingo Ridge Farm, a local and sustainable farmer Bon Appetit has been buying from for over 10 years, about the importance of supporting small-scale agriculture.
Congratulations to the Bon Appétit Management Company team at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR, which has achieved gold certification from the City of Portland’s Sustainability at Work program, recognizing its leadership in helping make Portland one of the cleanest, most sustainable cities in the country. To earn this honor, the team completed numerous actions to benefit their local economy, community and environment, which were verified during an onsite visit with a Sustainability at Work adviser.
Bon Appétit started serving Lewis & Clark College in 1990, and since then the company has grown and expanded upon its environmental initiatives. Since 1999, the company has required every single one of its 500-plus cafés around the country to spend at least 20% of their food dollars on small, owner-operated farms within 150 miles of the cafés (our team at Lewis & Clark has been known to exceed this number). Chefs only serve seafood that has been rated green or yellow based on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guidelines, cage-free shell eggs, and humanely raised ground beef. The chefs utilize snout-to-tail and just-in-time batch cooking techniques to prevent waste and prepare the most fresh and delicious food possible. Any food that does go to waste is either donated to people in need in the community through Urban Gleaners or composted. All of these initiatives in addition to many other daily sustainable practices and purchasing standards earned Bon Appétit at Lewis & Clark College this competitive award.
The chefs and managers at Lewis & Clark have done an exceptional job of staying true to our company’s tagline, “food service for a sustainable future” and have worked hard to earn the highest award from Sustainability at Work. We couldn’t be prouder!