Center for Good Food Purchasing

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.