A coalition of organizations that represents farmers, ranchers, fishermen, students, and food system workers launched a new campaign Tuesday that targets the purchasing practices of the country’s top cafeteria operators. Those operators—Aramark, Sodexo, and Compass Group—run a huge percentage of the country’s institutional cafeterias, including 47 percent of hospitals, 21 percent of college campuses, and 11 percent of public school districts. The coalition aims to shift the purchasing practices of the biggest operators to support a more sustainable food supply chain.
The first stage of the Campaign for Real Meals targets the companies’ operations on college campuses. The coalition’s demands include that the food service providers purchase 25 percent of their food from local and sustainable sources, buy more from farmers with marginalized identities, and buy less from conventional, industrial meat and dairy companies. “It’s time for these food service leaders to make good on their environmental pledges by cutting their carbon emissions and sourcing more food from local and regional, ecological and organic producers,” said Chloe Waterman, senior food campaigner with Friends of the Earth, in a statement.
The coalition behind the campaign includes the Domestic Fair Trade Association, the Fair World Project, Friends of the Earth, the HEAL Food Alliance, Real Food Challenge, Public Justice, the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, the Organization for Competitive Markets, and Operation Spring Plant.
“Aramark, Compass Group, and Sodexo falsely claim to be delivering what students are demanding in the way of good food from local farmers and ranchers. Instead, they are partnering with the biggest, most destructive agribusiness corporations on the planet through an opaque and unethical pricing model that’s delivering the opposite of what students are promised,” said Mike Callicrate, board member of the Organization for Competitive Markets, in a statement.