TEDxFruitvale » Sponsors

TEDxFruitvale Sponsors

The Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation
Lead sponsor

The Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation‘s mission is to educate consumers, institutional purchasers, and culinarians about how their food choices affect the global environment, local economies, and the quantity and quality of healthy food, now and for future generations, and to activate them to make change.

Formed in 2005 as an operating 501(c)3 by Bon Appétit Management Company, the Foundation looks at the food system, considers where we can have the biggest impact, and partners with leading research institutions to recommend changes in food procurement policies. It also works with producers and distributors to change their production practices.

Through the first project, Making Waves, the Foundation sponsored nationwide presentations educating thousands of consumers and restaurant professionals about the impact of their seafood choices and helped craft a landmark sustainable seafood purchasing policy. Later, it worked with seafood suppliers to change their aquaculture practices. It partnered with scientific researchers to develop recommendations for Bon Appétit Management Company’s Low Carbon Diet initiative, which helped the company lower its greenhouse gas emissions and our use of non-renewable energy in everything from kitchen equipment to food choices to waste-stream management.

In 2009 the Foundation hired three recent college graduates and sustainability champions as Fellows, asking them to visit farms around the country to learn about labor practices throughout the entire supply chain. Those experiences informed their work on the Inventory of Farmworker Issues and Protections in the United States, a groundbreaking report the Fellows helped draft in partnership with the United Farm Workers and with support from Oxfam America. The Inventory compiled and analyzed data from multiple federal, state, and private sources to give the most comprehensive picture yet of the reality faced by America’s least-valued but critically important workforce.

The Foundation hopes that TEDxFruitvale, by bringing together farmworkers, farmers, activists, filmmakers, professors, students, artists, and musicians, will spark dialogue about how to make consumers consider not only who grew their food, but who picked it; how businesses can incorporate fair labor practices into their sourcing criteria, and much more.

HavenBMedia
Event programming and speaker preparation

HavenBMedia is an Oakland-based media relations team focused on food, environment and community. We are professional communicators who are serious about positive social and environmental change. Our passion is getting the word out about sustainability, from seafood to ethically sourced coffee to the latest eco-fashion. HavenBMedia partners with businesses, non-profits and entrepreneurs seeking experts who understand how both traditional and social media operate in the food and farming movement. We’re proud of our work with Bon Appétit Management Company, Equator Coffees, Bi-Rite Market, Capay Valley Farm Shop and others that have authentic and powerful stories for us to tell. Follow us on twitter: @havenbourque

Bon Appétit Management Company
Food and refreshments

Bon Appétit Management Company is an on-site restaurant company offering full food-service management to corporations, universities, and specialty venues. Based in Palo Alto, CA, Bon Appétit has more than 400 cafés in 31 states, including eBay, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Getty Center. A pioneer in environmentally sound sourcing policies, Bon Appétit has developed programs addressing local purchasing, the overuse of antibiotics, sustainable seafood, cage-free eggs, the connection between food and climate change, and, most recently, farmworker welfare. The company has received numerous awards for its work from organizations such as the James Beard Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Seafood Choices Alliance, The Humane Society of the United States, and Food Alliance. Its dining operations at Wheaton College in Illinois were recently voted Best College Food by 122,000 college students surveyed by the Princeton Review. It is proud to feed the community of Mills College, where TEDxFruitvale is being held, on a daily basis.