HISTORY

The Center for Good Food Purchasing was created in 2015 to guide the national expansion of the Good Food Purchasing Program, a replicable model which was developed by the Los Angeles Food Policy Council (LAFPC) and tested in Los Angeles beginning in 2012. The Center for Good Food Purchasing works with national partners, local food policy councils and grassroots coalitions, administrators, and elected officials in cities across the country to scale the Good Food Purchasing model. To read more about the Good Food Purchasing Program in Los Angeles, visit the LAFPC website.

 

The model was developed by a multi-stakeholder working group with expertise in labor, nutrition, environmental sustainability, animal welfare, agriculture, processing, distribution and institutional food procurement. Nearly 100 national, state, and local food system experts provided recommendations and feedback on the policy, which was developed as a framework for institutions of all types and sizes and across locations.

MILESTONES

2011-2012

  • Los Angeles Food Policy Council Procurement working group develops the Good Food Purchasing Guidelines for Food Service Institutions.

2012

  • The City of LA (October) and LA Unified School District (November) adopt the Good Food Purchasing Program, committing to implementing the Good Food Purchasing Guidelines. These commitments impact approximately 750,000 meals a day.

2015

  • In response to interest from cities and institutions across the country for replicating the Good Food Purchasing model elsewhere, the Good Food Purchasing Program is spun off from the Los Angeles Food Policy Council and the Center for Good Food Purchasing is created to house the national initiative in July 2015.
  • Coalitions and/or government entities actively establish the Good Food Purchasing Program as a priority in Austin, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Oakland, Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul), and San Francisco.

2016

  • San Francisco Unified (May) and Oakland Unified (November) School Districts adopt a Good Food Purchasing resolution via unanimous vote by the School Board.

2017

  • Chicago Public Schools adopts the Good Food Purchasing Program (June), followed by Chicago Park District (September) and a resolution adopted by the City of Chicago (October).

  • Local coalitions actively establish the Good Food Purchasing Program as a priority in Washington, DC and Buffalo, NY.

2018

  • Boulder Valley School District’s School Food Project is awarded our first-ever five star Good Food Provider rating following a baseline assessment of its institutional procurement practices in February.
  • Cook County, Illinois Board of Commissioners adopts the Good Food Purchasing Program  via unanimous vote by commissioners in May.
  • The Good Food Purchasing Program is honored with a Future Policy Award Honorable Mention from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Future Council, and IFOAM Organics International in Rome during World Food Week in October.
  • Local coalition actively establishes the Good Food Purchasing Program as a priority in San Diego.

2019

  • District of Columbia Public Schools adopts the Good Food Purchasing Program as part of the Healthy Students Amendment Act.
  • Cincinnati Public Schools adopts the Good Food Purchasing Program.
  • Austin Independent School District adopts the Good Food Purchasing Program.
  • City of Boston adopts the Good Food Purchasing Program via City Ordinance (Councillor Wu) which includes Boston Public Schools.
  • The Center for Good Food Purchasing hosts the first ever Power of Procurement Summit in Chicago, IL.

2020

2021

  • Published “The Good Food Purchasing Program: A Roadmap for the Post-Pandemic Food System We Need” to share a vision for what is possible over the next ten years if we act boldly, together, with our values and imagination as our guide.
  • The City of New York’s Mayor’s Office of Food Policy released their first-ever Citywide Goals & Strategy for the Implementation of Good Food Purchasing, outlining their commitment to Good Food Purchasing, their plan for increasing their targets in the five value categories, assessments and action plans detailing their performance to date, along with agency level raw purchasing data.
  • Launched “Good Food Impact Hub,” with the support from the Rockefeller Foundation, an online policy tool that provides policymakers, advocates and communities with a suite of tools to calculate and articulate the positive impacts of adopting sustainable and equity changes to local purchasing practices.

TO DATE

  • We are working with 63 enrolled institutions and 11 local coalitions—representing hundreds of organizations—in 25 cities and counties across the country. Together, these institutions spend over $1.1 billion on food each year.