As a turbulent winter draws to a close, our resolve is sustained by the continued Good Food achievements throughout our partner network, strategic advocacy from our communities, and a shared vision that persists in the face of adversity.

In This Issue

• Georgia Institute of Technology, East Baton Rouge Parish Schools achieve Good Food Leader: Bronze status
• Policy partners align response to federal funding cuts
• CA regional collaboration tackles institutional product, bid challenges
• Good Food Operators 2025 Learning Series kicks off with assessments session
• ICYMI: In Case You Missed It
• Center Updates
• Upcoming Events

Baseline assessment completion establishes Good Food Purchasing Program in Georgia, Louisiana

Georgia Institute of Technology, a top public research university of more than 50,000 students, and East Baton Rouge Parish Schools, serving 40,105 students as the second largest school district in Louisiana, recently earned Good Food Leader: Bronze designation through their commitment to implementing Good Food Purchasing Program Standards.

Institutions awarded the Bronze seal have worked with the Center’s Assessments and Analytics team to complete an assessment of one year of food purchasing data, have made a commitment to report annually on fundamental strategies for Good Food Purchasing Program implementation, and have co-developed an action plan with the Center’s team to work toward Gold status.

Georgia Tech’s assessment documents strong Community Health & Nutrition performance — surpassing the 51% nutrition checklist threshold — and a solid foundation for growing local-sourcing and sustainability efforts across campus food services, as well as above-target local spend from producers of color.

East Baton Rouge Parish Schools also performed well in Community Health & Nutrition value scoring, based on intentional thought regarding nutrition across the school district, as well as leadership focused on supporting the health, wellbeing, and engagement of the larger community. The district’s partnership with the LSU AgCenter Seeds to Success Program to promote education on regenerative agriculture for suppliers, and the district’s $915,042 investment (2022-23) in local, family-owned and -operated farmers, processors, and distributors, demonstrate clear enthusiasm for bringing local food to students’ plates.

As the Good Food Purchasing Program’s first institutions in Georgia and Louisiana, Georgia Tech and East Baton Rouge Parish Schools have started the process for long-term commitment and participation in the Good Food Purchasing Program and distinguished themselves among the leaders of values-based purchasing in their regions.

Policy partners align response to federal funding cuts

Coalitions work to mitigate hardship through calls to action and aggregated resources

Many of our partners across the country are facing devastating and quickly evolving challenges due to the ongoing funding freeze and cuts being made by the current administration. In February, Center staff visited Capitol Hill with other NSAC members to talk to legislators about the effects of this uncertainty and what it means for people growing food, feeding their communities, and relying on institutions for their meals.

On March 7, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that the previously announced 2025 funding for Local Food for Schools and Child Care Cooperative Agreement (LFSCC) and Local Food Purchasing Assistance Cooperative Agreement program (LFPA) is being terminated. Both LFSCC and LFPA created opportunities for local farmers and producers to access and expand market channels through school and food bank purchases.

This reduction eliminates $1 billion in funding that would have supported farmers across the country to provide high-quality food to our communities through schools and food banks. Our partners at National Farm to School Network (NFSN) have launched an action alert and story collection page for individuals and organizations to share how these cuts are directly affecting communities and constituents, as well as a media coverage tracker.

In addition, the following resources offer connections to support and opportunities to join collective response and group advocacy efforts:

• National Resource Guide for Producers by the American Farmland Trust

• Grassroots Funding Freeze Mobilization Toolkit by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)

• Federal Cuts Map and Tracker for submission of media coverage about impacts and stories from federal workers, federal business partners, and grant or loan recipients

• National Young Farmers Coalition Call to Action

CA regional collaboration tackles institutional product, bid challenges

The project partners prototyped several strategies to address these challenges and brought them back to the second convening in January for institutions’ feedback. The result is a multipronged approach that collaborative partners will work to implement over the grant period, including:

• A GFPP Institutional Solicitation Calendar, listing all upcoming bids and RFPs, will be used by the Center for Good Food Purchasing and CAFF to raise awareness among regional suppliers;

• The Center and CAFF will offer technical assistance to suppliers on using institutions’ online bid platforms;

• CAFF will add Good Food Purchasing Program language to its Bid Generator, helping institutions to easily add GFPP criteria to their bids and RPFs;

• The Center, CAFF, and Fullwell will continue to adapt a “products of concern” list to help institutions identify suppliers of foods that meet Good Food Purchasing standards, and demonstrate to food suppliers where critical demand exists; and

• The Center and CAFF are coordinating with other California food systems partners on fresh-cut produce demand from GFPP-enrolled institutions.

Meanwhile, Fullwell and the LAFPC continue to build regional support for adoption and implementation of Good Food Purchasing policies in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, respectively. While LAFPC has been primarily focused on response to and ongoing recovery from the LA fires, Fullwell is building political support in the City of San Francisco to pass a new Good Food Purchasing resolution after the current resolution committing the City to GFPP expires later this year.

The Center’s Program Team launched the Good Food Operators 2025 Learning Series on March 18 with a session on assessments — and what to do with them. Center Institutional Impact Manager Jon Polley brought together Good Food Operators representing a range of institutions and regions to hear insight from Peter Cohen, Senior Analyst at the Center; Marissa Bell, Dietitian and Marketing Coordinator at Lake Travis Independent School District in Texas; and Jocelyn Dubin, Lead Public Health Nutritionist at the County of Santa Clara in California.

Peter Cohen provided an overview of the life cycle of an assessment, walking through best practices in data collection, what happens during data analysis, and how to make the most of the processes of debriefing, action planning, and setting next steps. Key advice included, “Lean on your contracts; lean on your contacts,” to work with vendors to collect as much data as possible. A Good Food Purchasing Program assessment is an action planning tool, storytelling aid, and jumping-off point for future work, Cohen said — not a report card or slap on the wrist.

In her overview of how Lake Travis Independent School District has used assessments to drive impact across its 11 schools, Marissa Bell highlighted initiatives such as reducing meat options on menus, hiring a Procurement Coordinator, transitioning menu promotion items to the menu cycle, and developing community partnerships to study food waste and coordinate local supply and demand for specific produce items.

“Celebrate the small wins, and they add up to big ones.”
-Marissa Bell, Lake Travis ISD

Bell emphasized that assessments can be used as a “north star” to provide direction (not as a directive) even when factors remain beyond control.

Good Food Operators will receive an invitation by email to join the next session and may contact Jon Polley at jpolley@goodfoodpurchasing.org with any questions, or to receive the link to the March session’s recording.

Center Updates

Core Operations, Communications departments welcome new staff

Upcoming Events