Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 69.35
Liaison Delicia Nahman
Submission Date Sept. 12, 2023

STARS v2.2

Lafayette College
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.47 / 6.00 Christopher Brown
General Manager
Bon Appétit Management Company
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Percentage of total annual food and beverage expenditures on products that are sustainably or ethically produced:
23.40

Percentage of total annual food and beverage expenditures on plant-based foods:
35.57

An inventory of food and beverage purchases that qualify as sustainably/ethically produced:
A brief description of the methodology used to conduct the inventory, including the timeframe and how representative samples accounted for seasonal variation (if applicable):

To calculate responses to OP 7, we used data from Lafayette College's 2022 Fiscal Year, which is July 1st 2021- June 30th 2022. We included all purchases on campus. Given a transition in dining service providers, 22-23 data was not available.
Please note that the vendors included as institution affirmed are enrolled in Bon Appétit’s Farm to Fork program. The program requires that vendors be small (under $5 million revenue), local (within 150 miles) and owner-operated. Organic certification isn’t required, because we believe that small, owner-operated farms, where the owner is involved in the day to day operation of the farm operate much differently than large mono-cropped farms. Locally Crafted, a program within Farm to Fork, was created for locally owned businesses creating artisan food products (such as tofu) from local or third party certified ingredients. Farm to Fork vendors have been visited by members of the Bon Appétit team in person; some during the enrollment process and some on a more regular basis. You can read more about Farm to Fork requirements at http://www.bamco.com/timeline/farm-to-fork/.
We cook from scratch, including stocks, sauces, and most salad dressings. In order to calculate plant-based foods, we started with total food and beverage spend and removed the following: beef, turkey, pork, chicken, eggs, dairy, seafood, processed cereals, dessert mixes, soda, energy drinks, mayonnaise, packaged snack foods, and bottled water. What remains is spend on fresh fruits and vegetables, canned vegetables (example: canned tomato puree), frozen fruits and vegetables, oils, grains, beans/legumes, spices, and nuts.


Website URL where the institution’s validated Real/Good Food Calculator results are publicly posted:
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Which of the following food service providers are present on campus and included in the inventory/assessment?:
Present? Included?
Dining operations and catering services operated by the institution Yes Yes
Dining operations and catering services operated by a contractor Yes Yes
Student-run food/catering services No No
Franchises (e.g., regional or global brands) No No
Convenience stores Yes Yes
Vending services No No
Concessions Yes Yes

Total annual dining services budget for food and beverage products:
$1 million - $4.9 million

A brief description of the institution’s sustainable food and beverage purchasing program:

Sustainability is at the heart of the food and beverage program managed by Bon Appétit at Lafayette College. We have a goal to source at least 20% of ingredients, by dollar, from small, local, owner-operated farmers and artisans; prioritize plant-based proteins in the café and offer vegetarian options at every meal; cook from scratch, including stocks, sauces, and soups; prevent and minimize waste in a number of ways; purchase only cage-free and third-party certified eggs, pork from sows raised in group housing without the use of gestation crates for most of their pregnancies (we are the first food service company to make this commitment), and ground beef from Certified Humane operations or small, local farmers. Our seafood is never airfreighted, and is purchased in accordance with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch guidelines for sustainability. We have also built on 15 years of climate action with an ambitious new food-focused climate change goal, pledging to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 38% per calorie of food by 2030, without the use of external offsets. The new companywide commitment aligns with the science-based criteria of the World Resources Institute and objectives outlined by the Paris Agreement, which seek to prevent global warming past 1.5 Celsius.
Companywide, we serve only Fair Trade Certified tea. Our coffee is either sourced from a local roaster, or from vendors that adhere to one of our four accepted certifications, which include three recognized by AASHE STARS criteria: USDA Certified Organic, Fair Trade Certified, or Certified Bird Friendly.
Last but not least, we communicate with guests through several channels. We use descriptive dish titles with local farm names when applicable and use Circle of Responsibility (COR) icons on menus to convey wellness and sustainability information related to each of these standards. On our guest-facing website (www.lafayette.cafebonappetit.com) we share information about our sustainability policies, the local farms we source from and their distance from the campus, and display menus featuring COR icons.


Website URL where information about the food and beverage purchasing program is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

In the Field
* An inventory of food and beverage purchases that qualify as sustainably/ethically produced there is already a secure field
(Currently: secure/821/6/481/3689/OP 6 and 7.xlsx )
this will not allow me to upload the newest information and should be disregarded.

I have attached our Food and Beverage Inventory in the field below.
Additional documentation to support the submission
Currently: secure/821/8/756/6999/Lafayette_STARS_2.2_Food_and_Beverage_Purchasing_Inventory_BA_v2.2_Final_-_Copy.xlsx

Hopefully this makes sense.

Thanks


In the Field
* An inventory of food and beverage purchases that qualify as sustainably/ethically produced there is already a secure field
(Currently: secure/821/6/481/3689/OP 6 and 7.xlsx )
this will not allow me to upload the newest information and should be disregarded.

I have attached our Food and Beverage Inventory in the field below.
Additional documentation to support the submission
Currently: secure/821/8/756/6999/Lafayette_STARS_2.2_Food_and_Beverage_Purchasing_Inventory_BA_v2.2_Final_-_Copy.xlsx

Hopefully this makes sense.

Thanks

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.