This week San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) became the second school district in the nation to adopt a comprehensive Good Food Purchasing Policy. This institutional policy shift is a strong statement that a more sustainable, fair, healthy, local and humane food system is possible – and that a roadmap already exists to support cities to make these goals concrete and attainable. We applaud the SFUSD school board for their vision and unanimous “YES” vote!
The Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) is framed by five core values: local economies, environmental sustainability, valued workforce, animal welfare and nutrition. The Program outlines metrics in these value categories that provide a framework to help public institutions set goals and benchmarks in each of the five value categories that are relevant to their local context. In most cases, these efforts build from efforts already underway to improve local and regional food systems and the GFPP offers a comprehensive way to address many shared goals in one policy.
Real Food Media is proud to be a part of the movement to help expand the reach of the GFPP in partnership with the Food Chain Workers Alliance and the Center for Good Food Purchasing. This amazing victory wouldn’t have been possible without the work of a diverse and robust set of partners including the ASPCA, Bi-Rite Market, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, CUESA, Farm Forward, Friends of the Earth, Humane Society, Mission High School, Roots of Change, Slow Food San Francisco, Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, SPUR, The Union of Concerned Scientists, The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, PolicyLink, School Food FOCUS, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and many local partners.
A special thanks to the leadership of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Joint Council 7 who ensured that the voices of workers were central to this process, and who led the local SF coalition in these efforts. For more information on the victory check out this press release from SFUSD and this press release from the Teamsters.
To learn more about GFPP and see the difference it has already made in Los Angeles Unified School District, watch in this short video produced by our talented Real Food Media staff!
