WHO WE ARE
The Center for Good Food Purchasing uses the power of procurement to create a transparent and equitable food system that prioritizes the health and well-being of people, animals, and the environment. We do this through the nationally-networked adoption and implementation of the Good Food Purchasing Program by major institutions.
The Center manages the Good Food Purchasing Program, working with institutions to establish supply chain transparency from farm to fork and shift towards a values-based purchasing model.
The Center works with national partners and local grassroots coalitions in cities across the United States to build a cohesive movement in support of Good Food purchasing.


“Governments have few sources of leverage over increasingly globalized food systems – but public procurement is one of them. When sourcing food for schools, hospitals and public administrations, governments have a rare opportunity to support more nutritious diets and more sustainable food systems in one fell swoop.”
HOW WE WORK
A just and more regenerative food system is possible when we face the same direction together. The Good Food Purchasing Program unites stakeholders from across the food system around shared values and strategy. Together, we:
INCREASE COORDINATION
and alignment in the food movement through comprehensive, metric-driven standards that reflect a shared vision and collective values.
ENHANCE CAPACITY
of local grassroots coalitions and support for local procurement policy efforts to ensure that public food contracts reflect community values.
ACTIVATE POLICY
to institutionalize buyers’ commitments to Good Food and supply chain transparency.
EMPOWER GOVERNMENTS
by sharing tools to make informed procurement decisions, set procurement targets, and measure impact.
LEVERAGE BUYING POWER
and increased supply chain knowledge to drive change in the food industry towards suppliers that support our values.
OUR TEAM
STAFF & BOARD
As Director of Operations, TIFFANY CHEUNG is responsible for optimizing the Center’s internal infrastructure and technologies to support sustainable expansion of the Good Food Purchasing Program.
Tiffany has over a decade of combined experience in Project Management and Finance. Directly before joining the Center, she was Director of Finance Optimization at Sony Pictures, where she oversaw the company’s portfolio of Finance and Procurement projects. She also led global projects focused on increasing operational efficiencies and streamlining processes, managing teams on the ground in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
Tiffany is passionate about building an equitable and humane food system and promoting healthy and vibrant individuals, communities, and ecosystems. She is currently a peer counselor at W.O.M.A.N., Inc., providing support to people impacted by domestic violence. Tiffany has a B.A. in Business Economics and Minors in Accounting and Scandinavian Studies from UCLA.
PETER COHEN joined the Center for Good Food Purchasing in 2021 as an Analyst. He works with institutions to collect and analyze purchasing data, track progress towards Program goals, and shift sourcing to increase Program performance. His previous food system experience includes an AmeriCorps term in Oregon focused on rural broadband access for family farmers, supporting disruptive startups for a food incubator in the Bay Area, and conducting research for a local food policy council in Orange County, NC. He is passionate about the intersection of sustainable food systems and local economic development. Peter is a 2020 graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he majored in Public Policy and Food Studies with a minor in Environmental Science.
PAULA DANIELS is Co-founder and Chair of the Center for Good Food Purchasing, a social enterprise non-profit founded in July of 2015 as a national spin-off from the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, which Paula founded in 2011. The Center for Good Food Purchasing uses the power of procurement to create a transparent and equitable food system that prioritizes the health and well-being of people, animals, and the environment, through the nationally-networked adoption and implementation of the Good Food Purchasing Program by large institutions. There are numerous institutions in cities across the US enrolled in this Program.
She is a lawyer and public policy leader in environmental food and water policy, with extensive experience in developing and leading local, state and national environmental initiatives that include government, civil society, and private sector partners. Her most notable work is in urban forestry, green infrastructure (for stormwater management) and food system policy (all award-winning initiatives); she has also had key roles in other aspects of public policy and municipal infrastructure.
Paula has extensive experience in government: she served as Senior Advisor on Food Policy to Mayor Villaraigosa of Los Angeles; as a Los Angeles Public Works Commissioner (a full-time executive position overseeing a large city department); a commissioner with the California Coastal Commission; appointed board member of the California Bay-Delta Authority (overseeing the California State Water Project); and as a commissioner with the California Water Commission.
She has received recognition through academic appointments and other awards, including: the Ashoka Fellowship (2018); the Resident Fellowship at the Bellagio Center of the Rockefeller Foundation (2016); the Stanton Fellowship of the Durfee Foundation (2012-2013); the Pritzker Environment and Sustainability Education Fellow at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (2015); the Lee Chair in Real Estate Law and Urban Planning at UC Berkeley (2013); Top Ten People Making LA a Better Place (LA Weekly, 2012); 2012 Honoree, Green LA Coalition; Water Quality Leadership Award (LA Regional Water Quality Control Board, 2007); Environmental Leadership Award (California League of Conservation Voters, 2005); Super Healer Award (Heal the Bay, 2005).
Paula is a registered Native Hawai’ian.
LAM LE is an Analyst at the Center for Good Food Purchasing. Her work involves collecting and analyzing data, working with local partners and assisting institutions in meeting and complying with the Good Food Purchasing Standards, and supporting the Center’s current and future initiatives. Previously, Lam worked with the Green Team at Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley to support and implement green-building projects. She was also part of the Zero Waste Team at Haas, where she focused on outreach and the education of zero-waste practices. Lam is a member and volunteer at the Berkeley Student Food Collective. She holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.
MICHAEL LOPER joined the Center for Good Food Purchasing as an Analyst in 2021. He is responsible for analyzing procurement data and sharing evaluation results with institutional partners to facilitate actionable and measurable food sourcing improvements. Previously, Michael worked as a Health Program Analyst with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health where he was responsible for data management and analysis related to the County’s COVID-19 pandemic response. He holds a Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP), and Food Studies Graduate Certificate from UCLA and is dedicated to promoting just and equitable food systems as reflected through his internship experience with the Los Angeles Food Policy Council and Los Angeles County Sodium Reduction Initiative.
COLLEEN MCKINNEY is the Director of Engagement for the Center for Good Food Purchasing, where her focus is on the successful expansion and implementation of the Good Food Purchasing Program. She enhances program processes and infrastructure, facilitates individual and group technical assistance, oversees supply chain monitoring and verification, and contributes to strategic direction of the Center, including expansion, coordination with Governing Board and national campaign committee, resource development, branding and website development, and administration. Previously, she contributed to the Good Food Purchasing Program as a Policy & Program Associate at the Los Angeles Food Policy Council. She holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Southern California.
ZAINAB PIXLER joined the Center for Good Food Purchasing in 2020 as an Analyst. She conducts in-depth supply chain research and produces aggregate analysis and reports to inform institutions on strategies to shift sourcing and increase Program scoring and performance. Prior to joining the Center, Zainab managed the Retail Donation Program at the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. In this role, she worked with grocery retail partners to reduce food waste and to provide nutritious food to those experiencing hunger. Zainab has dedicated her career to ensuring everyone has access to nutritious and delicious food, and she brings that same passion to the Center. Zainab holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Supply Chain Management with a Minor in Food Studies from Syracuse University.
SUE WOODARD is the Executive Assistant for the Center for Good Food Purchasing, supporting the expansion and strengthening of the Center’s initiatives. She previously served as Caseworker and Co-Chair of Volunteers for the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, where her primary focus was on effective distribution of the organization’s micro-lending program for service members across California’s Central Valley. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a minor in Art History from Suffolk University.
TINA CASTRO is a Managing Partner and co-founder of Avivar Capital, bringing over 15 years of experience in the fields of finance and investment management. Tina co-leads the firm’s overall business activities and serves as an impact investment advisor to Avivar’s clients providing guidance on the development and execution of impact investing portfolios and funds.
Prior to founding Avivar, Tina spent more than five years as the Director of Impact Investing for The California Endowment (TCE) and prior to that, six years in the Investment Management Division at Goldman, Sachs & Co. At TCE, a health-focused private foundation with over $3 billion in assets, Tina developed financing vehicles and strategies that delivered solid financial returns, leveraged significant additional investment capital and supported TCE’s Building Healthy Communities goals. This included the California FreshWorks Fund, a $272 million public-private partnership loan fund to finance supermarkets and other forms of healthy food retail in underserved communities throughout the state as well as TCE’s $101 million Program-Related Investment portfolio focused on healthy food retail, community health centers, affordable housing and community lending.
Tina has designed and built impact investing portfolios and funds on behalf of clients ranging from large national and regional private foundations to local community foundations including authoring Impact Investing Policy Statements, Impact Investing Procedures Manuals and designing social and financial tracking systems using customized dashboards as well as conventional portfolio management systems.
Tina is a CFA Charterholder, has an MBA in Finance from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and an MA in International Affairs with a focus in International Business from the University of Miami. She earned a BA Cum Laude in International Relations with a focus in Latin America from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Tina currently sits on the board of Aeris Insight and is an Adjunct Instructor co-teaching a graduate course on impact investing at USC.
ELIZABETH REYNOSO is an Associate Director at Living Cities where she is a senior leader responsible for managing the resources and results of a collaborative of the world’s leading foundations and financial institutions. Since 2015 she has been working with mayors and their staff in the development of public sector strategies, including equitable contracting and inclusive procurement, to close racial income and wealth gaps.
With a background in social justice, economic development, and farming, Elizabeth developed policies and programs to increase food security for residents when she served as the first Food Policy Director for the City of Newark, NJ under then-Mayor Cory Booker. During her tenure she created a citywide umbrella campaign that increased SNAP redemption and farmer revenue by 125%. She also established NJ’s largest urban farm on public land, at that time, which provided training and jobs for formerly incarcerated. She continued to serve the city as the Acting Sustainability Director in the Baraka administration.
Elizabeth began her career in international human rights with Human Rights Watch and lived abroad for several years before focusing domestically on criminal justice issues through her media and advocacy work. In the Frontline series, The Drug Wars, her team won a Peabody for its 30-year history of US drug policy and its effect on the world economy and US foreign policy. With the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Elizabeth’s on-the-ground work led to a package of prisoner reentry bills passed by the NJ State Legislature in 2010 that was hailed by the New York Times as “a model for the nation”. Elizabeth managed a Department of Labor Pathways Out of Poverty grant for Goodwill Industries International to provide green jobs training in the solar, construction, and energy-efficiency industries to low-income individuals in six major cities around the country.
Before coming to UCS, Dr. Salvador served as a program officer for food, health, and well-being with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. In this capacity, he was responsible for conceptualizing and managing the Foundation’s food systems programming. He partnered with colleagues to create programs that addressed the connections between food and health, environment, economic development, sovereignty, and social justice.
Prior to that, he was an associate professor of agronomy at Iowa State University. While at ISU, Dr. Salvador taught the first course in sustainable agriculture at a land-grant university, and his graduate students conducted some of the original academic research on community-supported agriculture. He also worked with students to establish ISU’s student-operated organic farm, and with other faculty to develop the nation’s first sustainable agriculture graduate program in 2000; Dr. Salvador served as the program’s first chair. Dr. Salvador also worked as an extension agent with Texas A&M University.
Dr. Salvador has appeared on MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry Show and has been quoted inThe Boston Globe, The New York Times, Politico and many other outlets. Dr. Salvador was named a 2013 NBC Latino Innovator and received the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award in 2014. He was also an author of a 2014 op-ed in The Washington Post calling for a national food policy, which is changing how many think about food and farm policy.
Dr. Salvador earned a B.S. in agricultural science from New Mexico State University. He holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in crop production and physiology from Iowa State University.
Wood brings over 20 years of experience in corporate sustainability, environmental management, and consumer engagement. Most recently, he was on the executive team at organic yogurt pioneer Stonyfield Farm as the company’s VP Sustainability Innovation. Prior to that, he was founding executive director of Climate Counts, an international NGO focused on measuring and scoring the world’s largest consumer companies on their concrete, enterprise-level responses to climate change. Wood has consulted to brands, elected officials, and public agencies on mobilizing the public around ideas that improve the environment and build community, including the start-up of a groundbreaking curbside food waste recovery program, the expansion of carshare program access to underrepresented communities in the Puget Sound area and Los Angeles, development of an early shuttle program for Bay Area biotech workers, and a citizen engagement program that nearly resulted in innovative fixed-rail for Seattle. Early in his career, he worked with the plastics industry in the policy and product stewardship arenas and was later instrumental in developing Urban Ecology’s “Blueprint for a Sustainable Bay Area.” He worked for many years on the alignment of economic and recreation demands with wetland, riparian, and wildlife corridor conservation in the Pacific Northwest.
Karen E. Watson is a strategic marketing and communications consultant whose practice centers on using consumer market research, advertising techniques, and stakeholder coalition building to create greater public demand for healthier behaviors and the adoption of new cultural norms.
Watson established a business vertical at Nielsen to sell data, analytics and solutions to the government and public sector in order to match the interests of public policy entities, domestic and global, to Nielsen’s broad array of information and services. She was the primary driver behind the innovative “Drink Up” project, a national public health campaign to encourage Americans to drink more water. Before that role, she was Chief Communications Officer at Nielsen.
Watson has more than 30 years of experience in policy, public affairs, government relations, media and marketing. As head of the public policy office for Echostar, during the introduction of satellite TV, she advocated for competitive choice for consumers. As chief communications officer for the FCC during the mid 90’s, she translated complicated communications policies during the revision of the 1930 Telecommunications Act, Watson’s early career was as a journalist for PBS, National Public Radio and The MacNeil/Lehrer Report.
Watson also currently holds a title as visiting researcher at Imperial College Business School in London, where she works at The Centre for Health Economics and Policy Innovation. She has lectured graduate students at McGill University, Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and Columbia University.
She is an investor in Farmer’s Fridge and a board member of the Gold Foundation and an advisory board member of several food and tech startups. She also advises Esther Dyson’s Wellville initiatve and the Obama Foundation’s effort on Civic engagement.
PARTNERS
In cities across the country, the Center for Good Food Purchasing works with a network of cross-sector partners at the national and local levels to expand the reach and impact of the Good Food Purchasing Program.
NATIONAL PARTNERS
Core national partners include Food Chain Workers Alliance and Real Food Media.
Leading national food and farm organizations support expansion by sharing expertise and resources on advocacy, policy, the program values, research, impact evaluation, communications, coalition building and much more.
LOCAL PARTNERS
Local lead partners represent place-based coalitions, ensuring the work is grounded in local priorities, coordinating coalition-building and campaign development, and facilitating political and institutional relationships.
Local institutional partners commit to implementing the Good Food Purchasing Program values and framework, championing the program internally, participating in the multi-phased assessment process, and using assessment results to guide purchasing shifts in each of the values.
LOCAL CAMPAIGNS & POLICY ADOPTIONS
Cross-sectoral, community-based local coalitions help ensure that Program adoption and implementation in a city or region reflects community priorities and complements the existing work and expertise on the ground in that city. Adopting a policy to commit to Program values, and transparent, equitable, and accountable implementation is a critical step to ensure transformative, ongoing engagement.
ENROLLED INSTITUTIONS
Institutions that enroll in the Good Food Purchasing Program commit to meeting the baseline standard in each of the Program’s five values, incorporating the Good Food Purchasing Standards and reporting requirements into solicitations and contracts, establishing supply chain transparency to verify performance, and reporting on progress annually.
ANCHORS IN ACTION PARTNERS
Learn more about Anchors in Action, an alliance with Health Care Without Harm and Real Food Challenge that aims to drive food system change by unifying demand within and across institutional networks for supply chains that benefit all people, especially underserved and marginalized communities.
OUR SUPPORTERS
Support for the Center for Good Food Purchasing is provided in part through the generosity of the following funders:





We would also like to thank Community Partners for their fiscal sponsorship.
GOOD FOOD HEROES
Community. Flexibility. Quality. Relationships. Uncertainty. Resilience. Essential. Proud.
These are a few of the words our institutional partners used to describe the last two years. While Covid-19 has certainly changed the way institutions serve food to their communities, it hasn’t diminished their commitment to put their values front and center—all while securing protections to keep food service workers and communities safe throughout the pandemic. This Food Day, we celebrate and offer our immense gratitude to the food service staff and essential food workers across the country who have kept clear eyes and an unwavering commitment to ensure their communities are not just fed, but nourished.
JOBS & INTERNSHIPS
We are not currently hiring for any open positions.
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