During the last week in February, a visitor took time to rave to The Seattle Times about "the manager and staff of the cafe at the Arnold Building" for creating a salad bar that helps keep her "healthy and sane" during weekly, sometimes daily, visits to campus with her husband, who is receiving cancer treatment.
Public kudos for Consuming Choices Café comes on the heels of national honors for Bon Appetit's campuswide food service.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company awards its Great Expectations 3 certification (E3 Star) to branches of Bon Appetit that meet stringent standards for food, sanitation, safety, marketing, merchandising, signage, customer service and other station-specific criteria.
The award followed unannounced visits and a rigorous audit from a survey team, said Chad Gross, general manager for Bon Appetit's Hutchinson Center and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance operations. "Winning involves consistently meeting certain expected standards that aren't easy to achieve," he said. "Nationwide only about 10 percent of our cafes are GE3 Star certified."
Food service 'firsts'
Collectively Bon Appetit's 500 cafes in 32 states hold a long list of food service "firsts"—including the support of local farmers and addressing farmworkers rights, the overuse of antibiotics, the food, and climate change connection, and the use of humanely raised meat and eggs. The company is the recipient of numerous awards from organizations including the International Association of Culinary Professionals, James Beard Foundation, Natural Resources Defense Council, and The Humane Society of the United States.
