50 THINGS TO LOVE ABOUT YOUR CAFÉ
WE COOK FROM SCRATCH
Every day, your chefs begin with fresh, responsibly sourced ingredients and use their culinary expertise to prepare delicious, nourishing food. It’s more work, and it’s worth it.
We make all soups, stocks, salsas, and sauces from scratch.
When we say fresh, we mean it – we cook food from scratch each day in small batches.
Our cooks roast turkey and beef in-house – daily – for deli meat.
Cooking from scratch means oversight over ingredients, so we can more easily support individual dietary needs.
WHOLESOME, PLANT-FORWARD FARE
Whole foods are used as the foundation of our menus, a commitment that’s good for people and the planet.
Our dietitians and chefs translate the science of food and nutrition into café programs and menus.
We offer abundant fresh produce, whole grains, as well as lean and plant-based proteins.
Plant-based foods are prioritized in all corners of our cafes — while our menus are flexible to meet personalized choices.
Our standards ensure vegetarian and vegan options are available at every meal.
INCLUSIVE DINING BY DESIGN
We are committed to serving food that is safe and accessible for all. Menus are planned to meet a variety of special dietary needs, food allergies, and intolerances.
Our teams complete training certified by Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE), and our chefs and managers are always available to answer your questions.
Easy-to-read icons help you identify the foods that are right for you.
Knowledge is power, which is why we offer plenty of resources in your café and online at cafebonappetit.com designed to support your well-being.
Our food education team educates guests about the full journey of food (from field to plate) with the aim of increasing food literacy for everyone who dines with us.
FIGHTING WASTE
We follow the EPA’s Wasted Food Scale to inform and prioritize our work on food waste prevention and reduction. This means that we prioritize waste prevention, and when we do have waste, we aim to divert it from the landfill.
Waste Not™, our proprietary food waste tracking system, was created by chefs, for chefs, and is designed to inspire and inform behavior change in our kitchens.
We prevent waste before it happens. Small-batch cooking means freshly prepared food is replenished throughout mealtimes, resulting in less wasted food.
Stem-to-root and snout-to-tail cooking methods – the foundation of many traditional cuisines – also help our chefs prevent waste through smart culinary practices.
In 2024, we made a commitment that all our accounts would donate food regularly to food recovery organizations, addressing food waste and food insecurity at the same time.
We compost food scraps wherever composting infrastructure exists.
Where available, we choose disposables made with post-consumer recycled fiber or reusable to-go containers.
Our pioneering Farm to Fork program began in 1999 and now has over 1,700 enrolled suppliers nationwide.
Our goal is to source 20% of ingredients from small farms, ranches, and artisans within 150 miles of our kitchens.
Our from-scratch approach means we adjust menus based on seasonally available ingredients.
Our Locally Crafted program supports small food businesses focused on environmentally friendly ingredients, socially responsible hiring practices, and other values we champion.
Our Supplier Diversity program supports women- and/or minority-owned local businesses and helps them grow.
DIRECTLY SUPPORTING LOCAL FARMS
SEEKING OUT SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD
Seafood purchases, wild and farmed, follow sustainability guidlines outlined by Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch® program.
Our tuna is caught without the use of fish-aggregating devices (FADs), a destructive fishing method.
We’ve developed Fish to Fork, a local seafood procurement program, which includes guidelines for traceability.
Seafood is purchased fresh when available locally, or frozen at the source to ensure quality.
We’re the first food service company to set goals for antibiotics use in aquaculture.
SOURCING HUMANELY RAISED PRODUCTS
All eggs are certified cage-free by a credible third-party animal welfare organization.
We don’t serve foie gras or crate-raised veal.
Turkey, chicken, and pork are raised without nontherapeutic antibiotics.
Certified Humane ground beef, raised without antibiotics or added hormones, is sourced from a network of small farms and ranches.
Pork is from sows not confined to gestation crates.
We strive to source 25% or more of our total meat, poultry, and egg purchases from producers whose practices have been certified by approved third-party animal welfare organizations.
SUPPORTING FARMWORKERS’ RIGHTS
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We were the first food service company to partner with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to create a strict code of conduct for tomato growers.
We’re a founding member of the Equitable Food Initiative — working to give farmworkers a greater voice, promote environmental stewardship, and produce safer food.
Each March, we highlight farmworker issues through Farmworker Awareness Week educational campaigns.
Our tea is Fair Trade certified, and our coffee is either third-party certified or sourced from trusted Farm to Fork partners.
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS
In 2007, we were the first food service company to highlight the connection between the food system and climate change, shifting our practices to remove the equivalent of 5 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each month.
Our Low Carbon Lifestyle program prioritizes plant-based proteins, lower-impact transportation, food waste prevention and reduction, and decreased deforestation.
We skew our menu mix by emphasizing plant-based foods and being mindful of portion sizes of resource-intensive beef and cheese.
We minimize air-freighted seafood and non-tropical fruits and vegetables from outside North America.
We address deforestation by purchasing only North American meat, choosing FSC Certified or recycled paper products, and including shade-grown, Rainforest Alliance, or Bird Friendly certified as part of our sustainable coffee commitment.
We’re accountable. Our proprietary Food Standards Dashboard crunches and serves easy-to-access data to help our teams meet our culinary, wellness, and sustainability commitments.
The Food Standards Dashboard also integrates with World Resources Institute-compatible data tracking for a snapshot of where our operations generate the most greenhouse gases.
