Sewanee - The University of the South
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

To estimate the total annual food and beverage expenditures on products that are sustainably or ethically purched: We used purchasing data and inlcuded all purchases from the South Cumberland Food Hub, the best percentage estimate of purchases from the regional vendor What Chefs What, the locally-sourced milk purchases, the locally-made granola purchases, and purchases from the known farm vendor partners to determine an annual sustainable/ethical purchasing total in dollars. To estimate the total annual food and beverage expenditures: we used the purchasing data to see how many purchases we had for two years and tried to estimate how much would be purchases of non-food items from Sysco (examples: gloves, paper products, etc). We subtracted the non-food estimate from the total food and beverage purchases. All this was using purchasing data from FY20 and FY21. To estimate the percentage of total annual food and beverage expenditures on plant-based foods, we used a 2-month sample of itemized food purchasing data from all vendors in 2020 (the only partial year for which we have food invoice data that has been successfully translated from invoices into the SIMAP food data template) and using the "Category 1" designations of each food and beverage item, separated the purchases into plant-based and non-plant based purchases and then found the total, subtotals, and appropriate percentage of plant-based to total purchases.

Dining buys anything the University Farm grows and will sell us. Additionally, Sewanee Dining has direct relationships with many local farms and the local food hub. We make purchases from those partners every single week. The University coffee shop (Stirling's) looks to buy all produce, meats, milk, honey and eggs locally first and then will fill the purchasing needs with traditional vendors thereafter. The University Pub and the Cup n' Gown coffee shop do not purchase locally - the Pub is fried foods and the Cup 'n Gown doesn't have a kitchen. The University dining hall (McClurg) is limited by the volume of local availability. We buy as much as we can seasonally and develop menus based on the produce and meats that are available. The dining hall has a standing commitment to purchasing a certain amount of eggs, lettuce, tomatoes, 150# of beef, and a set number of gallons of local cider, annually. Local fruit is also bought in season and then frozen for use the rest of the year. Additionally, McClurg annually pre-books orders of strawberries, 5-6 lambs, and 5-6 University-raised goats. When available we always menu seasonal vegetables as they are market-available. All other dining purchasing needs are then met via the regional What Chefs Want vendor. What Chefs Want is based in KY and they have and distribute lots of local products that are KY and TN farm-based. The Sewanee Dining (for McClurg) purchasing process goes: local (Food Hub, local farm partners), What Chefs Want, and finally, Sysco. Importantly, Sewanee Dining purchases from What Chefs Want for emergency orders as they deliver daily. Most of the dining hall proteins and dry goods come from Sysco.

All data was compiled in collaboration with the Associate Director of Dining and the Coffee House Manager.