Food purchasing to support environmental sustainability and climate mitigation

Stephen (he/him) started at Stanford Health Care’s main Palo Alto, CA hospital in June 2020. He is responsible for purchasing, supplier relationships, managing the central food services storage locations, and all food service procurement. These responsibilities cover multiple operational units of food services, including patient dining, retail, catering, a restaurant, event services, and disaster/emergency food supplies stock. Before joining Stanford Health Care, Stephen was the Purchasing Manager for Delaware North at Petco Park. He was responsible for the purchasing for all food & beverage locations within the stadium. He spent seven years at Spartan Shops Inc. on the campus of San Jose State University in food services procurement. In all of the purchasing and procurement management roles Stephen held, he was responsible for high-volume, newly implemented purchasing positions, where Stephen started as the first person to fill the roles.  Stephen has had to plan, create processes, develop and grow teams, learn, engage, etc., from the ground up for locations that had existed for many years.

As a Farm to Market Strategist for the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Ben (he/him) supports the Farm to Market Team to develop and deliver programs that help small-scale California family farmers and ranchers reach new markets and bring the food they grow to local communities. Ben is a founding member of Beef2Institution, bringing more than ten years of experience in value-based supply chain coordination for institutions throughout California. In addition to supporting Beef2Institution with CAFF, Ben manages Shared Plate Strategies, helping institutional buyers navigate their procurement and bid processes.

Kathy (she/her) works on various projects, including Beef2Institution, school food, processing issues for ranchers, certifications, and building consumer demand for regenerative agriculture. The ranch exists to practice and promote regenerative agriculture, inspire and catalyze action to transform five million acres to regenerative land management, and shift five million eaters to purchase food raised from regenerative farms. Growing up in California, Kathy studied nutrition/dietetics at CSU Chico State and is passionate about food and farming. She has been with the ranch since 2007 and helped launch the ranch’s grassfed beef business, LeftCoast GrassFed, in 2008. 

After years of research on the health benefits of pastured meats and clean eating, siblings Carrie, Noelle & Tom started Richards Regenerative in 2012 with the cattle from their 4th generation family ranch in California.  In 2016, Carrie (she/her) & family moved to the ranch and transitioned the operation to a regenerative grazing system, taking a “soil first” approach.  The ranch has continued to thrive since choosing to prioritize soil health, and so has the business, which sells into retail stores, schools, hospitals, and large chains like Shake Shack.