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UC Global Climate Leadership Council Sustainable Food Sourcing Project

Advancing Sustainable Food Supply Chain Sourcing and Dining Practices Across the University of California

Phase 1 of this project supported UC campuses and academic health centers to align definitions, data collection, and reporting on sustainable food procurement, engage UC community members on sustainable food priorities, develop case studies on sustainable food procurement success stories, and advance progress towards the UC President’s goal of defining the actions and resources needed to procure at least 25 percent of our own food supplies from sustainable sources by 2025.

Tim Galarneau from the Center for Agroecology and Agnes Martelet from UC Office of the President’s Sustainability Office co-direct the project initiative to engage all UC sites in Phase 1 and in Phase II Marilyn Biscotti from UCOP will join Tim and Agnes to further advance and co-direct UC efforts. The UC Global Climate Leadership Council is funding this project that has completed the first phase (November 2023 through Fall 2024) with Phase II beginning in Winter 2025 to expand and deepen efforts across UC sites..

Phase I Project Impact Report and Toolkit

 

Download PDF of Report Here

Phase I Project Overview

This project supports campus data tracking and sourcing evaluation in order to improve upon efforts to date while engaging student fellows and technical assistance partnerships for increased sustainable food spending with a multi-pronged approach. In Phase I our team assessed supply chain and policy mechanisms to accelerate sustainable sourcing with a nuanced approach while leveraging the synergistic relationships between UC applied research, educational programing, operational budgets, and long-standing supply chain contracts and sourcing partnerships.

Our project goals are to: 1) Advance the expansion and sourcing for sustainable food producers and enterprises in UC food service operations; and, 2) Assess the key barriers and introduce recommendations for improving overall reporting and sourcing practices that integrate strategic systemwide sourcing and campus-specific secondary contracts and data collection.

Phase I Project Objectives

  • Provide technical training and support for Sustainable Food Global Food Initiative Fellows in implementing site specific engagement in data collection and reporting/evaluation
  • Facilitate systemwide and region-based campus/medical center technical assistance on sourcing and new sustainable food supply chain vendors and contract advances.
  • Identify and operate a campus pilot utilizing a new data tracking platform in concert with UCOP procurement and the senior commodity food manager.
  • Convene strategic procurement food commodity leads to review existing contracts with project team in order to examine opportunities to improve contract language to increase sustainable food sourcing for UC campus and medical sites.
  • Host spring 2024 sustainable food systems campus and medical center events to promote greater sustainable food literacy and project awareness.
  • Develop a project impact report providing insights on barriers and recommendations for improving regional and systemwide sustainable food sourcing, focusing on advancing the presidential priority focus for reaching 25% sustainable food sourcing by 2025.

Phase I Project Technical Assistance Team members include H Neito-Frambach, CEO, and Anna Bohbot, Senior Associate, from SupplyChange; Yousef Buzayan, Senior Farm to Market Manager with Community Alliance with Family Farmers; Héktor Calderón-Victoria, Regional Food Systems Specialist, Center for Agroecology; Amanda Chu, Procurement Director and Jesse James Student Organizing Director, Real Food Challenge. 

 

Phase II Project Objectives

Based on feedback from campus, academic health centers, and systemwide attendees at the August 2024 project convening, coupled with supplemental input from the UC Sustainable Food Service Working Group and UCOP project partners, Phase II of the Sustainable Food Project will include the following objectives and activities:

  • Expand the integration of campus sites utilizing MaetaData for systemwide tracking and UC site level feedback in concert with UCOP procurement and the senior food commodity manager. Leverage engagement through the SFSWG.
  • Facilitate systemwide and region-based campus/academic health center technical assistance on sourcing and new sustainable food supply chain vendors and contract advances.
    • Work with academic health centers and campuses to develop a plan and process for transitioning to sustainable pre-cuts for bigger impact. 
    • Evaluate the feasibility for developing a collaborative protein purchasing strategy and implementation plan.  
    • Review opportunities for sustainable value-added product pilots across UC Sites.
    • Support teams in working with primary and secondary vendors to create improved coding of sustainable products in product catalogs. 
  • Support procurement food commodity leads and teams to review existing contracts and further improve contract language to increase sustainable food sourcing for UC campus and academic health center sites.
  • Host a spring 2025 sustainable institutional food sourcing convening to share opportunities, challenges, and best practices across CA education and health care sites in order to improve local supply chains, contracts, and identify opportunities for partnerships. 
  • Conduct detailed cost analysis of shifting from conventional to sustainable proteins and produce across the UC system and develop sustainability and social equity metrics to evaluate the impact of UC sourcing 25% of its food from sustainable and small and diverse enterprises. Develop clear outcomes for the UC in order to ensure site leads and systemwide leadership can speak to the implications of achieving this goal.
  • Convene UC campus and academic health center site partners with UCOP and Project team in summer 2025 to review project impacts and inform next steps and directions for advancing interventions in FY 2025-26. 
  • Provide technical training and support for Bonny Reiss Leading on Climate Sustainable Food Fellows in implementing site specific data collection and reporting/evaluation, as well as student and community engagement on sustainable food.

Develop a Phase II project impact report providing insights on barriers and recommendations for improving regional and systemwide sustainable food sourcing to continue to build momentum to reach the Sustainable Practices Policy goal of 25% sustainable food sourcing.

For more details please contact Tim Galarneau tgalarne@ucsc.edu or 831-359-8861.