The Good Food Purchasing Program transforms the way public institutions purchase food by creating a transparent and equitable food system built on five core values: local economies, health, valued workforce, animal welfare, and environmental sustainability. It is through the innovation, leadership, and dedication of food service and procurement teams that bring this vision to life. On this page, you will find a series of tools and resources developed by the Center, in partnership with our national network of institutions, to support program implementation, foster peer learning, and build a movement strong enough to change our food system. 

Information about the standards, assessments, and action planning process:

• Program Overview - video on the how and why of the Good Food Purchasing Program

• Standards Overview - an overview to understand which products qualify in the five value categories

  • To request a full copy of the standards and more detailed information on Program requirements, contact us at info@goodfoodpurchasing.org. 

• Sample Baseline Assessment - to understand what kind of information you’ll get in your report

• Sample Action Plan - for insight on how to plan from a baseline assessment to star status

• Regional aggregate dashboards - such as this Bay Area example, for regions working on collective implementation of the Program 

Public dollars for public good! Learn how to maximize your solicitations and contracting processes to achieve your purchasing goals. 

• Solicitations Toolkit - best practices, tools, resources, and real world examples of values based solicitations

• Solicitations Toolkit Explainer - overview video of what’s in the toolkit and how to use it

• Additional Resources - a library of case studies and research pieces regarding values based procurement practices and strategies

For more specific guidance on how to use our procurement tools, or for support reviewing/editing solicitations, please contact Molly Riordan, our Director of Institutional Impact, at mriordan@goodfoodpurchasing.org.

How much will it cost? This is a universal question with no simple answer. We’ve developed these resources to give greater insights into cost neutral purchasing tactics and how to mitigate increased costs through operational strategies.

• A Good Food Cost Management Analysis - review an aggregate analysis of the cost differential between qualifying and non qualifying purchases, along with peer sourced best practice strategies for cost management

• Cost Management Analysis Explainer

• Case Studies: 

  1. • Austin Independent School District

     • Minneapolis Public Schools

     • San Francisco Unified School District

• Budget Projection Worksheet - integrate item level purchasing goals, and carbon and water footprint reduction modeling, into financial planning

To help institutions identify and collaborate with providers of values aligned products, the Center has developed the following tools:  

• Purchase Browser - that leverages aggregate national data to highlight qualifying products and suppliers

  1. • Frequently Asked Questions

     • Demonstration Video

• Good Food Purchasing Vendor Orientation - overview video for information about how the program works, data collection, and qualifying items

• Good Food Purchasing Vendor Resources - for additional information about the Program

• Consider a hosting Vendor Open House to share your purchasing goals and priorities, with support from the Center.

Like your vendors, community partners are prime collaborators in the Program, helping you ground your good food purchasing goals in community values and priorities. 

• Good Food Cities - to learn more about the coalition of local and national partners working to expand the the Program across the country 

• Good Food Impact Hub - to help community members and policy makers understand the impact of values aligned purchasing shifts

• Procurement Landscape Assessment Worksheet - to guide community members through learning more about the local procurement landscape

• Procurement Landscape Companion Report - to decipher findings from the Landscape Assessment

• Procurement 101 Training - training recording designed to ground community engagement in procurement basics