April 2018

As UC Berkeley provides refreshments for hundreds of meeting and events weekly, catering plays a significant role in the UC Berkeley food procurement landscape. Our campus has an opportunity to provide “sustainable and just” catering by working with vendors who meet a matrix of values. The Berkeley Food Institute has put together the following guidelines based on the combined values of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Environmental Sustainability; Food Recovery; Health and Nutrition; and Labor.

The guidelines linked below are designed to assist departments in working with vendors to provide sustainable and just food. We acknowledge that these guidelines are a high ceiling, and that food service is very challenging business with a low margin of profit. We also recognize that campus departments are often working with a small budget for catering. Thankfully, our local catering community has an abundance of catering businesses who share these values, and many offer affordable options.

Data collection by Serena Chan, Angel Tsai-Hsuan Chung, and Rosalie Z. Fanshel.