On October 24, 2016 (National Food Day), the San Francisco Unified School District School Board officially signed their commitment to use their food service budgets for food system change. Surrounded by community food advocates, labor organizers, food businesses, and national food policy experts, three members of the SFUSD school board – Board President Matt Haney, Commissioner Sandra Lee Fewer, and Commissioner Emily Murase – signed the Good Food Purchasing Pledge, signifying their adoption of a program and policy developed by the Center for Good Food Purchasing.

The signing ceremony was hosted by the Teamsters Joint Council 7 and the Center for Good Food Purchasing to celebrate San Francisco Unified School District’s Good Food Purchasing Program adoption earlier this year on May 24, 2016.

“We are thankful,” said Board President Matt Haney, “to be able to adopt something that I think reflects who we are — allows us to treat people well, treat animals well and create a system that works better for our students and our entire school district community.”

Commissioner Sandra Fewer, who has since been elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, urged the adoption of the Good Food Purchasing Program at other institutions throughout the country, noting San Francisco’s legacy of being at the forefront of national change. She applauded the Good Food Purchasing Program for providing tools for the district, enabling it to use  “our procurement dollars that we spend anyway to push toward greater transparency, to push our partners to actually have a far reaching effect on how they hire, how they treat their employees and also how they take care of the Earth.”

All photos taken by Rosalyn Lee
Photo 1: Commissioner Sandra Fewer, the policy’s sponsor (pictured with Board President Haney),signing the Good Food Purchasing Pledge.

 Photo 2: Community food advocates, labor organizers, food businesses, and national food policy experts, three members of the SFUSD school board – Board President Matt Haney, Commissioner Sandra Lee Fewer, and Commissioner Emily Murase.

 Photo 3: Board President Matt Haney (right) reflects on what it means to have a holistic food procurement policy in place to guide their food purchasing decisions and serve the best possible meals to their students.

 Photo 4: Orla O’Keefe, Chief of Policy and Operations for the District, with Nutrition Services staff and Commissioner Fewer express excitement at new opportunities to continue innovating within the district.

 Photo 5: Members of the San Francisco Unified School District (Board President Haney, Commissioner Fewer, and Commissioner Emily Murase) and the Center for Good Food Purchasing team (Alexa Delwiche, Chuck Savitt, Paula Daniels, Joann Lo, Ricardo Salvador, Colleen McKinney, and Allison Hagey), with SFUSD’s Good Food Purchasing Pledge.