Center for Good Food Purchasing
Model & Strategy
The Center for Good Food Purchasing works to transform the food system by mobilizing the collective power and influence of diverse movements to change the way food is produced, processed, and distributed. The Center has leveraged over $1.1 billion in institutional food purchases to reach over 3 million people.
The Problem
An unprecedented convergence of crises in recent years has exposed the longstanding inequities and vulnerabilities in our food system and fueled an urgency to build resilience to future shocks. With impacts disproportionately falling on low-income communities and communities of color, transitioning to a food system that is more equitable, healthy, sustainable, fair, and humane has never been more important. Simultaneously, there is an unprecedented opportunity for equitable food policy change, with the federal government and key states for the first time employing a whole of government approach to transforming the food system in line with principles of racial, economic, environmental, and climate justice.
The Solution
The Center for Good Food Purchasing offers communities a framework and tools to help make values-based food procurement work. The Good Food Purchasing Program serves as a catalyst for accelerating this transition in ways that empower equitable, community-based solutions through the lever of public food procurement. By aligning, connecting, and aggregating local and regional Good Food Purchasing efforts across the country, the Good Food Purchasing movement is laying a foundation for food system transformation at scale, with benefits accruing to people and the planet.
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 Good Food Purchasing Program, the Center works with institutions to increase supply chain transparency; provide third-party, independent analysis to show institutions how their current food purchases align with a set of holistic food procurement standards; and empower a national network of institutions and the communities they serve. More specifically, they provide institutions and communities with better information, leveraging their collective buying power to drive large-scale market shifts towards five core values: 1) local and community-based economies; 2) environmental sustainability; 3) valued workforce; 4) community health and nutrition; and 5) animal welfare, centered around the principles of equity, transparency, and accountability.
The Good Food Purchasing Program is a leading food procurement model nationally and the first of its kind to support these food system values in equal measure. The Center for Good Food Purchasing works with national partners, local food policy councils, grassroots coalitions, administrators, and elected officials in cities across the U.S. to transfer, scale, and network the Good Food Purchasing Program.
The Center for Good Food Purchasing’s origins date back to 2009, when co-founders Alexa Delwiche and Paula Daniels began working together to build the Los Angeles Food Policy Council (founded by Paula Daniels). While at the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, Delwiche and Daniels, along with a broad network of partners, launched the Good Food Purchasing Program. In 2015, following successful adoption and implementation in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Unified School District and City of LA, Delwiche and Daniels founded the Center for Good Food Purchasing to guide the national expansion of the Good Food Purchasing Program.
Delwiche’s passion for procurement as a tool to accelerate food system change began when she worked for the United Farm Workers. While at the UFW, she witnessed firsthand the complexities of agricultural supply chains, how little consumers really know about how their food is produced, and how challenging it can be for individual consumers to influence food system change. Just like individuals, major food buying institutions don’t know where their food is coming from either, but they spend billions of dollars on food each year and with the right framework and tools, they can be a powerful force to create greater transparency in our food system and ensure that food is not just healthy for individuals, but also healthy for workers, producers, communities, animals, and the environment. It was this recognition that led Delwiche to spearhead the development, launch and expansion of the Good Food Purchasing Program, which has now spread to over one dozen cities nationally. In 2016, on behalf of the Center for Good Food Purchasing, Alexa was selected as one of five recipients of the Union of Concerned Scientist’s Science Champion award as an example of how standing with science is improving society. Alexa holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California, Los Angeles.
IMPACT
The Center for Good Food Purchasing is working with over 70 public institutions — which encompass thousands of individual cafeteria sites, food service operations, and venues — in 25 cities to transform their approaches to food purchasing and catalyze change in their local food systems.
Since 2015, the Center for Good Food Purchasing has aggregated over $1.1 billion in institutional food purchases.
