EPPP
Value: JUSTICE AND FAIRNESS
Value-Based Practice:Ensure that schools and other public institutions serve healthy and delicious meals to all and give preference to purchasing food from local farms.
First Step: DEVELOP “ENVIRONMENTALLY PREFERABLE PURCHASING PROTOCOLS”
Partner with the City of Oakland to develop and implement new request for proposal (RFP) standards and language prioritizing and outlining “Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Protocols” (EPP) and nutrition standards for all City food contracts, phased in over five years. [See also “Scale up Local Purchasing.”]
Needs & Opportunities:
With 20 percent of Oakland’s population living below the poverty level, 23 percent of our population utilizing Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and large swaths of Oakland with poor access to nutritious fresh foods (food deserts), the need for city administered food programs to purchase local, sustainably produced food is great. Oakland can promote access to safe, healthy, culturally appropriate foods for all of our citizens. We can purchase locally[i] and sustainably[ii] produced foods to support our local food system, and reduce Oakland’s impact on the environment. Presently the City of Oakland’s Department of Human Services has begun exploring options for sustainable food purchasing protocols and RFP language to purchase local and sustainable food products for their self-operated programs.
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Action Suggested: |
Fiscal Impact:
Local and sustainable food procurement can create local jobs, and is affordable. Food costs at Oakland’s Meals on Wheels program increased 1 percent ($0.016) per meal over historical costs with 50 percent of all food products purchased locally and sustainably. Labor costs increased by 8 percent ($0.13) per meal, while supplying two more local jobs[iv]. Additionally, studies[v] have shown that for every dollar spent locally, two dollars circulate in the area's economy (the “multiplier effect”).
Best Practices & Further Information:
Other cities have already pioneered local and sustainable food procurement; see San Francisco’s Executive Directive on Healthy Sustainable Foods, and the City of Berkeley’s Food and Nutrition Policy. In Toronto (Ontario, Canada), the city’s Climate Action Plan includes a commitment to local purchasing, starting with Children’s Services. Toronto’s Local Food Procurement Policy and Implementation Plan shows that the Children’s Services Department has increased its local purchases 13.4 percent since 2008, to 33.4 percent of total purchases. Toronto is now developing plans to purchase 50 percent of all city food locally. More information is available in a soon-to-be-released Food First report entitled Cutting Through the Red Tape: A Resource Guide for Local Food Policy Practitioners & Organizers.
[i]For the purposes of this document, “local food products” are products produced within 150 miles of the point of use (or municipality). If the desired product is not available within 150 miles, the product should be searched for within 300 miles, within Northern California, within California, and finally selected from the closest source.
[ii]For the purposes of this document sustainable food products that are produced within the biological limits of natural resources, supporting local ecosystem, and supporting the viability of rural and urban economies and communities.
[iii]Produce (fruits and vegetables), dairy products, meats, poultry, fish and seafood, dry goods/groceries and baked goods
[iv]Bay Area Community Services, Culinary Social Enterprise Financial Report, July 2008.
[v]City of Oakland Meals Programs (Head Start, Senior Nutrition, Meals on Wheels, Health Care, Homeless Services etc.)
