FSD in 5: Eurest teams up with woman-owned Miffy's Foods, expect a plant-forward takeover at the 2024 Paris Olympics and how one nutrition team is uplifting its community through a local partnership

What’s new in the on-site foodservice industry? Last week the FoodService Director team reported on inclusivity in the B&I sector, bold plant-forward goals set for the 2024 Paris Olympics and how partnerships can help build up a foodservice operations community. Welcome to the new and revamped FSD in 5, a quick look at five foodservice stories you should know about.

Eurest, the B&I segment of foodservice giant Compass Group, is using its influence as a major player in the foodservice industry to push inclusivity. To that end, the company’s most recent partnership is helping the company support women and minority owned businesses. Eurest is teaming up with Portland, Oregon based Miffy’s Foods, which will become the exclusive supplier of brownie mix for Eurest locations. Miffy’s Foods has been working with Eurest since 2019, when the company became the first in Eurest’s Business Partner Accelerator program, which is designed to help minority and women-owned businesses expand in the space.

“When I was starting my business, I delivered baked goods locally in Portland and constantly received feedback on the brownie, so I decided to reintroduce it and share it with the team at Eurest,” says Miffy’s Foods founder Miffy Jones. “I’m overwhelmed by the response and truly grateful for the growth and impact that Eurest has driven for my business and life.”

The 2024 Paris Olympics game organizers have set some bold goals this year when it comes to sustainability. France, which is running this year’s games, aims to cut the carbon emissions of the games in half, and a big part of the strategy to accomplish that goal is by offering more plant-forward fare. 13 million meals will be served at the event this summer, which will be the world’s largest catering event. And the game organizers are aiming for at least 50% of meals to be vegetarian and or 50% of all animal proteins to be replaced by plant-based proteins for volunteers, employees, suppliers, the media and athletes. For fans of the game, the game organizers are aiming for at least 60% of the meals offered at food and beverage outlets to be vegetarian.

The sustainability features of this year’s games don’t end there either. France also aims for 80% of food served to be made up of seasonal and local ingredients. In addition, 80% of unavoidable food waste will be recovered for composting, anaerobic digestion and other waste reduction efforts.

Flavor and creativity will not be forgotten this year either, says the games organizers who pulled in chefs and artisan food producers to develop plant-based recipes.

“The commitments and methods of Paris 2024 are a tangible application of our vision for more sustainable games. By setting a carbon budget for each meal that must not be exceeded, making upstream commitments with our partners and suppliers to give a second life to all equipment, and setting quantified targets, our ambition is to drive progress for the games and create a legacy in collective and events catering,” said Georgina Grenon, director of the environmental excellence team at Paris 2024

Chartwells K12 at Norwalk Public Schools in Norwalk, Connecticut has recently teamed up with Open Doors, a local shelter that feeds the greater Norwalk Community. The team originally heard about Open Doors through one of their own team members, who had volunteered at the shelter in the past.

The original plan was for the team to prepare and volunteer to serve one meal a month at the shelter, however they soon found out that the only spot open on the calendar to volunteer to serve was in April, so they decided to go with solely preparing the meals each month.

When choosing what to serve, the team makes sure that the meals are well-rounded with at least a protein, grain, veggie and dessert. So far, the team has whipped up meatball subs, baked pasta, roasted chicken with rice and beans, among other entrees.

What drew the team to the partnership to begin with was Open Door’s strong ties to the community.

“A lot of our staff are a part of the community,” says Chartwells K12 Resident District Manager Angela Valentin. “With them working in foodservice they knew a lot of the families that would be benefitting from the Open Door meals.”

A bill in California that would ban the use of certain food additives and dyes in school meals has cleared the state Assembly.

If passed, A.B. 2316 would ban titanium dioxide and six food dyes (Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2 and Green 3) in school meals. However, food items sold at school as part of a fundraising event would be omitted from the law.

The bill’s sponsor, Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, cites a 2021 report by the California Environmental Protection Agency as the reason for introducing the legislation. The report found that consuming synthetic dyes can cause neurobehavior problems in some children.

The bill now heads to the Senate.

For a full look at what you might have missed in K-12 legislation, click here.

Each year, the FoodService Director team conducts a survey in hopes of digging a little deeper into the state of college and university foodservice. Some of the questions from this year’s survey: How’s it going with labor? Which food trends are you anticipating? How are you being as sustainable as you can with your practices? From there, we uncovered trends, successes and challenges for the year.  

For a look at the current state of college and university foodservice, click here.