The Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) uses the food buying power of institutions to purchase from vendors that care about the health and well-being of people, animals, and the environment. The Program provides clear standards and strategic support to encourage major institutions to purchase local, sustainable, fair, and humanely produced foods while also improving access to healthy, high-quality food for all of our communities. The program establishes baselines as well as improvement strategies along five values:
- Environmental sustainability
- Valued workforce
- Local economies
- Nutrition
- Fair treatment of animals
Racial equity is a foundation of the program, incorporated into all the value areas.
Over 40 cities and institutions across the country have already adopted the GFPP including the Los Angeles Unified School District, Cook County Illinois (including Chicago), the City of Boston, and Austin Independent School District in Texas.
How the Program Operates
The Good Food Purchasing Program provides a metric based, flexible framework that encourages large institutions to direct their buying power toward five core values. Each institution participates in a baseline assessment to evaluate how current purchasing practices match up with the Good Food Purchasing standards. The institutions then identify goals to move them forward in supporting the five value categories for food purchases.
Why Denver?
The Good Food Purchasing Program was under consideration by the Denver Sustainable Food Policy Council when the Denver Food Vision 2030 was being developed. The goals of the GFPP are consistent with the goals of the Mayor-approved Denver Food Vision 2030, including: to increase the size of the Denver food economy by $500 million dollars; attract $100 million dollars to Denver’s food businesses; and increase local food purchases to 25% for Denver agencies with public meal programs. Setting a policy for a new comprehensive food purchasing standard, the City can improve the quality of food provided to communities in need, boost local economies and encourage the adoption of environmentally friendly food policies. Institutions and agencies that have participated in the Denver Good Food Purchasing Program include: the Denver Sheriff’s Department; the Denver Office of Children’s Affairs; Denver Public Schools; the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver Health and Red Rocks Amphitheater.
Moving the Good Food Purchasing Program Forward
There are several ways that the Good Food Purchasing Program is moving forward in the City of Denver. They include the Denver Good Food Coalition, an executive order policy initiative, and training and education.
Coalition building for the GFPP has been underway for the last several years, facilitated by City staff, the Sustainable Food Policy Council and other community partners. Denver Good Food Coalition meetings have included participants from hospitals, universities, schools, farm organizations, labor, and the City of Denver, among others. The Coalition provides a space for different viewpoints to be represented while educating members about policy related to topics such as agricultural labor and animal welfare issues. There is great momentum to adopt the Good Food Purchasing Program as one method to improve the quality of food being served to residents in low-income communities.
The Denver Good Food Coalition meets quarterly
on the second Friday of the month from 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
The Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) City of Denver Executive Order 149 was signed on March 14, 2022 by Mayor Michael B. Hancock. The purpose of the Executive Order is to establish the policy of City and County of Denver (“City)”) agencies as it relates to the procurement of food used in public meal programs and concessions. Such public meal programs and concessions will use the Good Food Purchasing Program core values of environmental sustainability, boosting local economies, racial equity, a valued workforce, good nutrition, and animal welfare to guide their food purchases and programs. “Public meal programs” refers to meals that the City provides to members of the public as a part of a federal, state, or local program. “Concessions” refers to vendors and food service management companies that operate under a contract with Denver Arts and Venues and the Department of Parks and Recreation.
The Executive Order outlines procurement requirements for City agencies to increase GFPP qualifying purchases, transparency and accountability, and developing goals and action plans. There is also a Racial Equity Workforce requirement that all agencies must fulfill. City agencies that are subject to the Executive Order are the Office of Children’s Affairs, the Denver Sheriff’s Department and Red Rocks Amphitheater. Institutions that participate in the GFPP on a voluntary basis are the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver Public Schools and Denver Health.
Denver Sheriff's Department (2020-2024)
The Denver Sheriff’s Department (DSD) has been a participant in the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) since 2020. As part of their involvement, DSD completed a baseline assessment to evaluate their progress in meeting the baseline for the GFPP five core values, or standards, which include: boosting local economies, environmental sustainability, fair treatment of labor, animal welfare, and nutrition. The DSD has successfully met one of the five GFPP core values by purchasing almost double the required amount of products from vendors that qualify under the valued workforce category. The baseline requirement for this category is five percent of purchases, and DSD has achieved 9.6 percent of all food purchases. In the health and nutrition category, DSD has met 32 percent of the purchasing requirements but falls short of attaining the GFPP baseline of 51 percent. There are proportionally very few purchases in the local economy and environmental sustainability categories. There have been no qualifying purchases in the animal welfare category.
Accomplishments
In 2022, DSD achieved one of the goals in its GFPP action plan by purchasing Colorado pinto beans. Several jails in the state formed a cooperative to purchase this product in volume and at a lower price. The beans were grown by a farmer in Boulder County who then delivered them to a local food hub, East Denver Food Hub (EDFH). EDFH buys products from Colorado farmers and delivers them to the buyers in the Denver metro region and was responsible for delivering the beans to DSD. In addition, when DSD food service was self-operated in 2020, DSD donated their food scraps to a local hog farmer to feed his pigs. This reduced the amount of food waste at DSD and was in alignment with the environmental sustainability core value.
View the fact sheet here.(PDF, 261KB)
Office of Children's Affairs, The Tasty Food Program (2020-2024)
The Tasty Food Program, managed by the Office of Children’s Affairs (OCA), has been a participant in the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) since 2020. The Tasty Food Program includes the Summer Food Service and Child and Adult Care Food Programs. As part of their involvement, OCA completed a baseline assessment to evaluate their progress in meeting the baseline for the GFPP five core values or standards, which include: boosting local economies, environmental sustainability, fair treatment of labor, animal welfare, and nutrition. OCA has successfully met one of the five GFPP core values by purchasing 55% of items that meet the nutrition standard, which is four percent above the 51% baseline. However, in the local economies, environmental sustainability, and valued workforce categories less than one percent of purchases qualify towards the baseline standards which are 15 percent%, five percent and five percent respectively. There are no purchases that qualify in the animal welfare core value area. OCA has gained one extra point for offering portion-controlled meals.
Accomplishments
OCA not only met but exceeded the purchasing requirements in the nutrition category. They also received recognition for offering portion-controlled meals and culturally relevant food items. OCA was the only agency to accept funding from DDPHE to test a new vegan burger product, which was well-received by children in the Summer Food Service Program. OCA is collaborating with the Center for Community Wealth Building to determine if caterers from the Anchors in Action program could become vendors for the Tasty Food Program, and/or supply culturally relevant products.
View the fact sheet here(PDF, 256KB)
Red Rocks, Ship Rock Grille (2024)
Red Rocks (RRs) has been a participant in the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) since 2023. As part of their involvement, RRs completed a baseline assessment in August 2024 to evaluate their progress in meeting the baseline for the GFPP five core values, or standards, which include: boosting local economies, environmental sustainability, fair treatment of labor, animal welfare, and nutrition. Using this information, an action plan will be developed to track progress in meeting the GFPP standards. The Ship Rock Grille, the restaurant at the Amphitheater, is the only food-related enterprise at Red Rocks currently involved in the GFPP. The initiative does not yet extend to the six concessions at the Amphitheater that are managed by additional vendors. Denver Arts and Venues (DAV), the city agency overseeing Red Rocks, has contracted with Aramark to manage food service at the restaurant.
Accomplishments
RRs completed the baseline assessment in August of 2024 and is beginning to develop an action plan. Future accomplishments may include purchasing from all five value categories, purchasing up to 25% or more of local products, and achieving greater levels of data transparency. As RRs staff purchase directly from food hubs and local producers it is easier to verify source location. The food service director has made it a priority to purchase local products and has been successful in obtaining them from its supplier, Sysco, or outside of the supplier contract.
View the fact sheet here(PDF, 257KB)
Denver Health (2024)
Denver Health (DH) has been a voluntary participant in the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) since 2023. As part of their involvement, DH completed a baseline assessment in August 2024 to evaluate their progress in meeting the baseline for the GFPP five core values, or standards which include: boosting local economies, environmental sustainability, fair treatment of labor, animal welfare, and nutrition. Using this information, an action plan will be developed to track progress in meeting the GFPP standards. Denver Health purchases products in four of the five areas (excluding animal welfare). They have met the purchasing requirement in the valued workforce and nutrition categories. In the valued workforce category, Denver Health has purchased six times the amount required to meet the standard. The standard is five percent and qualifying purchases are 31%. In the nutrition category, they have 52% of qualifying purchases, just above the 51% requirement. Denver Health local purchases are four percent of their food spend, and the standard is 15% of food spend. Less than one percent of purchases qualify for the environmental sustainability where the standard is 5%. No purchases have been made in the animal welfare category.
Accomplishments
DH has just completed the baseline assessment in August of 2024 and is beginning to develop an action plan. Future plans may include implementing Harvest of the Month (HOTM), where one local product is highlighted monthly in the cafeteria. HOTM is an excellent first step into exploring local purchasing and seasonal items available in Colorado. Denver Health has also put systems in place to track purchases made by MWBEs (Minority and Women Owned Businesses) for non-food items. Further research may show if this system can be applied to food purchases.
View the fact sheet(PDF, 223KB)
Food service purchasers for institutions are often unsure how to connect with farmers and ranchers. Similarly, farmers and ranchers are generally not familiar with the complex requirements and processes involved in selling to institutions. Through City staff and industry experts, training has been provided to purchasers and producers on how to establish a business relationship. This is accomplished through workshops, farm tours, meet up events and webinars. Topics for trainings include procurement practices, value chain development, policy support, and case studies that focus on barriers to implementation and how to achieve success.
For more information about the Good Food Purchasing Program, contact Marion Kalb at Marion.Kalb@denvergov.org or 720-865-5511.
The Center for Good Food Purchasing created the GFPP in 2011 and is the nonprofit entity responsible for establishing the standards for the program and for conducting baselines assessments for agencies and institutions. They manage the GFPP, working with institutions from farm to fork to shift towards a values-based purchasing model, and assist agencies to achieve their GFPP purchasing goals. The Center works with national partners and local grassroots coalitions in cities across the United States to build a cohesive movement in support of Good Food purchasing.
The Denver Dashboard is a graphic representation of how Denver agencies and institutions are faring in each of the value categories and it provides a comparison with similar agencies in cities across the country. The dashboard also shows the potential impact Denver agencies could have on the environment, job creation and reduction in health risks with increased purchases in each value area.