The CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute along with 68 other organizations – including Natural Resources Defense Council, Community Food Advocates, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy, Oxfam America, Real Food Challenge, and University of Connecticut Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity – signed onto a letter asking Aramark and Sodexo to cut their purchases of climate intensive foods and increase purchases of plants. The companies are two of the world’s largest multinational food service corporations supplying food to institutions like hospitals, universities, and school districts in the US and globally. Both were asked to commit to three actions: 1) Reduce by 20% or more the GHG emissions of climate-intensive foods like meat, fish, dairy, seafood, and eggs within two years; 2) Train all culinary staff in plant-based and plant-forward menu strategies, the environmental and health benefits of a shift towards plant-forward dining in the food service industry; and 3) Regularly track and make public their progress towards these goals. Considering that each of these corporations has an annual revenue of more than $15 billion, and are among the largest employers on the Fortune 500 list, the opportunity to spark rapid, system-wide change in the agri-food and nutrition sectors is immense.
