By implementing the Sustainable DC 2.0 Plan, District of Columbia residents are working to transform our city into the healthiest, greenest, most livable city in the United States. We believe that bringing the Good Food Purchasing Program to all District institutions will help us reach the goals of the Sustainable DC 2.0 Plan and continue to elevate the importance of a more just and equitable food system in the nation’s capital.

Goals in the Sustainable DC Plan that align with the Good Food Purchasing Program include:

• FD1.3 (Nutrition): Develop and support school gardens and garden-based food system education to engage DCPS and charter school students.
• FD2.4 (Nutrition): Support evidence-based nutrition and cooking education efforts across all populations to help residents make healthier choices.
• FD2.5 (Nutrition): Implement the Nutrition Education Plan to make nutrition education as comprehensive as possible and to nurture students’ healthy eating habits.
• FD2.6 (Overall): Improve the quality of institutional food grown or purchased with District local funds, including in DCPS and public charter schools, childcare centers, jails, homeless shelters, and other institutional settings.
• FD3.2 (Local Economies): Collaborate regionally on the creation of a local food hub and other facilities for aggregation, processing and distribution of local food products.
• FD3.3 (Fair Labor): Develop a citywide workforce development strategy focused on expanding food sector jobs that promote public health and fair working conditions.
• FD4.1-4 (Sustainability): Minimize food waste across institutions and businesses via regular assessments, by incentivising donations, and conducting education to residents, businesses and institutions.

Since January 2016, over 30 stakeholder organizations have come together to bring the Good Food Purchasing Program to District institutions and to explore how we might apply the standards to DC’s unique context.

DC Public Schools led the way by adopting the Good Food Purchasing Program for their 114 schools and becoming the 9th school district in the country to do so. They completed their first baseline assessment for the 2018/19 school year and shared their results publically in this presentation. Currently, DCPS is in the process of developing a multi-year action plan with support from the DC Coalition to continue to better align their food purchasing with the GFPP values and standards.

In 2018, the DC Good Food Purchasing Program Coalition was also successful in incorporating the Program into the Healthy Students Amendment Act, making it so that DCPS must conduct an annual assessment to measure improved procurement practices in line with the Program’s values and standards. To learn more about the Coalition’s Mission, Objectives, and Action Plans for 2022 as well as Governance Structure and Bylaws, check out the Strategic Plan.

The Good Food Purchasing Program is also a priority for the DC Food Policy Council, which is exploring passage of a city-wide policy as well as elevating the Program in other local policies.

Executive Committee:

City Blossoms, Dreaming Out Loud, DC Greens, The Green Scheme, and 4P Foods

Contact Lea Howe to get involved in the coalition: lea@dcgreens.org

Member Organizations:

• 4P Foods
• Animal Welfare Institute
• ASPCA
• Center for Science in the Public Interest
• City Blossoms
• Coalition of Immokalee Workers
• DC Central Kitchen
• DC Fair Food Coalition
• DC Voters for Animals
• Dreaming Out Loud
• Food Chain Workers Alliance
• FRESHFARM
• Friends of the Earth
• FoodCorps Metro DC
• Health Care Without Harm
• National Latino Farmers and Ranchers Association
• Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
• The Common Market
• The Green Scheme
• Union of Concerned Scientists
• United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 400

Institutional Partners:

• DC Food Policy Council
• DCPS Food and Nutrition Services
• SodexoMAGIC
• Office of the State Superintendent of Education