RE:SOURCEFUL | SUPPORTING OUR SMALL PARTNERS

RE:SOURCEFUL

Our combination of national and local supply chains offers flexibility and stability

Fuqua School of Business Farm to Fork supplier Celine Koropchak tends to her blueberry bushes at Phantom Phoenix Farm in Oxford, NC

RALEIGH-DURHAM BON APPÉTIT ACCOUNTS HELP FARM TO FORK PARTNER TAKE AWAY THE BLUES

THE PANDEMIC HAS HIT restaurants and food service businesses hard — and it has also had a devastating effect on the vendors that serve them.

When Celine Koropchak of Phantom Phoenix Farms in Oxford, NC, began reaching out to her regular clients about her annual summer blueberry deliveries, she was met with a painful silence. Luckily, Bon Appétit Executive Chef Toby Pace at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in Durham, NC, found a way to answer this Farm to Fork vendor’s call.

Although operations at Fuqua were still closed, the Bon Appétit team committed to taking almost all of Celine’s 2020 harvest. The news was a huge relief for Celine, who founded Phantom Phoenix Farm in 2006 with 600 bushes she’d grown from seedlings after retiring from her career as a medical researcher at Duke University. Since then, she’s passionately tended to her crop, coaxing harvests of plump, sweet blueberries without relying on pesticides.

Toby received the first delivery of 105 pounds of blueberries in July and will continue taking Celine’s deliveries weekly until her harvest is complete. He is bagging each delivery and quick-freezing the berries at Fuqua until an opportunity arises to serve them to guests or distribute them to the nearby SAS and Citrix corporate campuses.

Toby and the other Bon Appétit teams are thrilled to be able to help ensure the survival of a local farm that has been a valued Bon Appétit Farm to Fork partner for more than five years.

— Submitted by Toby Pace, Executive Chef

The Bon Appétit @ Twitter team (aka @bonappetweet) with their first veggie box delivery

TWITTER TEAM BRINGS THE PRODUCE TO THE PEOPLE

WHEN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA went into COVID-19 shutdown, shuttering most Bon Appétit corporate cafés, it dramatically impacted dozens of small farmers as well. Bon Appétit spends millions of dollars on local produce from its Bay Area Farm to Fork vendors annually. Bryce Yee, a Bon Appétit senior executive chef at Twitter, wanted to help.

He connected with Lou Fierro from Halls Organics, who he knew could pull together produce from multiple local farms, including Coke Farms, Suprema Farms, Global Farms, and Halls Farms. They created a special produce box that Tweeps could order. The fresh fruit, greens, herbs, and vegetables get picked over the weekend and brought to San Francisco, and the Bon Appétit team delivers them to people’s homes by Tuesday.

The box program has continued and had many successful runs. “This lets people stay at home and support local small business without needing to go to high-populated grocery stores,” said Bryce. “Every one is thrilled with how fresh and delicious the food is.”

The Warriors teamed up with UberEats and Chase Center Taste Makers (such as pizza maker Tony Gemignani, below) to donate meals to essential workers including the San Francisco Fire Department (above)

SUPPORTING CHASE CENTER’S TASTE MAKERS — VIRTUALLY

WHEN CHASE CENTER, the 18,064-seat, privately financed sports and entertainment arena in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood, opened last fall, its concession stands and kiosks were crowded with hungry, excited Golden State Warriors fans and concert goers. Most of those eateries were new outposts of popular local restaurants, food trucks, and bakeries.

When COVID-19 shut down San Francisco, the Chase Center Taste Makers (as these local food partners are called) had to pivot their business plans to a takeout and delivery business model to survive. Bon Appétit, the Warriors, and Chase Center rallied around Old Skool Café, Bakesale Betty, Sarap Shop, Sam’s Chowder House, and the other Taste Makers by broadcasting the details of their new offerings through videos across their collective audience channels on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and more.

The Warriors lent their video team’s expertise to direct and assemble the moving short videos from images and footage shot by the Taste Makers themselves, with behind-the-scenes help from Bon Appétit. The Old Skool Café video was viewed more than 5,000 times! And Chase Center also pulled together corporate partnerships to support the Taste Makers by buying their meals for donation to front-line workers and others.

“Because of the promo, we sold out for the week!” reported Kristen Brillantes, cofounder of the Filipino fusion food truck Sarap Shop. “We also got a message from a local school that saw the promo through Chase and bought gift cards in bulk for all their teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week. We saw an 18% uptick in interest for our Work From Home Meal Kits! So much love in the club!!”

Taste Makers who utilized third-party delivery systems, specifically the Uber Eats platform, were included in the Warriors Golden Give back Promotion. Those who ordered using Uber Eats when a Taste Maker was featured paid no delivery fee and their dollar amount was matched in meal donations to essential workers up to $5,000. Tony Gemignani of Tony G’s Pizza made over 100 pizzas for his donation order. “We are grateful for this partnership; it was a boost that our business needed during these trying times,” he said.

The Chase Center, Bon Appétit, and the Warriors teams are commit ted to keeping the Taste Makers in the forefront of their audience’s minds, reminding everyone to eat, shop, and support local businesses as much as possible. — Submitted by Jessica Rohrig, Marketing Manager

Tony Gemignani of Tony G's Pizza