Since implementation in 2012, Los Angeles Unified School District’s commitment to the Good Food Purchasing Program has demonstrated promising supply chain impacts.
For the over 600,000 students the District serves, the following impacts were found:
- HEALTHIER, REFORMULATED PRODUCTS, including lower-sodium bread products made without high fructose corn syrup
- SUSTAINABLE, LOCAL PRODUCTS: LAUSD’s bread distributor, Gold Star Foods, had been sourcing out-of-state wheat for its 45 million to 55 million annual servings of bread and rolls. Today, nearly all of the L.A. school district’s bread and rolls are made from wheat grown in Central California, milled in downtown Los Angeles. And prices stayed the same over the last three years. See the PolicyLink Gold Star case study (PDF)
- These impacts extend beyond LAUSD. Gold Star Foods, distributes these same products to over 550 school across the Western United States. See the PolicyLink Gold Star case study (PDF)
- LOCAL PRODUCE: $12 million re-directed to purchase local produce
- GOOD JOB CREATION: 220 new well-paying food chain jobs created in Los Angeles County, including food processing, manufacturing and distribution.
- FARM & FOOD WORKER RIGHTS:
- Contributed to higher wages and improved working conditions for 160 truck drivers in LAUSD’s supply chain.
- LAUSD School Board adopted a resolution calling on a major California grower, to honor its union contract with the United Farm Workers, representing 5,000 farm workers due to the Good Food Purchasing Program commitment.
- LESS MEAT, BETTER MEAT:
- 15% decrease in meat spend due to implementing Meatless Mondays
- $20 million five-year contract awarded for chicken produced free of routinely administered antibiotics. Before, the contract always went to the lowest bidder. This time around the district prioritized poultry suppliers that encompassed the Good Food Purchasing values.
- WATER SAVINGS: Estimated 19.6 million gallons of water saved each week by implementing “Meatless Mondays” See the PolicyLink Equitable Procurement policy brief (PDF)