Letters

Bon Appetit supports rural reserves designation for Helvetia

May 12, 2009

To: Washington County Reserves Coordinating Committee
      Tom Brian
      Charlotte Lehan
      Jeff Cogen
      Kathryn Harrington

Cc: Reserves Steering Committee
      Metro Council
      Washington County Board of Commissioners
      Dave VanAsche, Washington County Farm Bureau
      Mike Dahlstrom, Program Educator, Washington County
      Deb Nudelman, Kearns and West
      Patt Opdyke, CCI

From: Fedele Bauccio

Dear Commissioners and Committee members:

I am writing to you regarding the urban/rural reserves process currently underway in your region.

Bon Appétit Management Company is an onsite restaurant company that provides café and catering services to corporations, colleges and universities, and specialty venues. We have over 400 locations in 29 states, including four sites in Washington County.

Bon Appétit was the first food service company to address the issues related to where our food comes from and how it is grown. We take our role in the community seriously and pride ourselves in making socially responsible purchasing decisions by purchasing from local farms whenever possible. Buying ingredients locally greatly reduces “food miles” – the distance food travels from harvest to table. This decreases air pollution, water pollution, traffic congestion, and the need for oil. We support true family farms where the owners live on or nearby the land, work it themselves, and therefore are conscientious stewards.

We currently work with several local farms in Washington County that supply as much as 70% of our produce during the peak seasons. We also partner with these farms to compost our food waste, which they in turn use to feed their crops.

We have become aware that large areas of highly-productive farm land in Washington County, specifically the areas north of Highway 26, are currently under consideration as urban reserves. Urbanization of these agricultural areas would destroy or severely impact local farms' ability to continue to deliver the high-quality food that we strive to serve to our customers.

We urge you to remove all areas north of Highway 26 from consideration as urban reserves. These areas should instead be designated as rural reserves, which will give these farmers the certainty they need to continue and expand. Urban population growth can be accommodated within existing developed areas by requiring efficient use of already-urbanized areas, redevelopment of underused facilities, and other "smart development" techniques.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Regards,

Fedele Bauccio
CEO
Bon Appétit Management Company

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