The keys to a successful purchasing collective

Purchasing more local, sustainable products is a priority for operators nationwide—but it’s not always financially or logistically feasible. That’s the situation Kathy King, dining director at Wake Robin continuing care retirement community, and other Vermont operators were facing when they started discussing the issue at an annual retreat. The Vermont Work Group, a purchasing collective of 12 hospitals and healthcare facilities, was born of these conversations.

“We were all looking to buy more local and sustainable products, and we weren’t getting those kinds of items from our broadline distributor,” says King, who is based in Shelburne, Vt. “So we thought that if we joined forces together, we would be more successful.”

That success resonates throughout noncommercial foodservice, as operators are able to not only source sufficient amounts of the products they’re looking for, but also enhance their communities by bolstering the stability of local businesses. About 94% of college and university operators and 56% of senior living operators are buying at least some of their products locally, according to data from FoodService Director’s 2016 Foodservice Handbook. And they’re eager to share their strategies for helping others do the same.

The vast produce purchasing needs at the University of Montana have helped build the Western Montana Growers Cooperative into a fiscally sound hub of farmers, says Mark LoParco, director of dining for the Missoula, Mont., school. “The market for locally grown foods has been a win-win, because we can go to the co-op and get products that we need, and they can have a reliable source in terms of sales,” he says. “My purchaser makes one call to the co-op, and they have 40 farmers out there that are supplying them.”

Operators overwhelmed by the ins and outs of sustainable purchasing should start with the low-hanging fruit, LoParco says, using the example of oil at his own operation. UM was using a half-dozen different oils, but realized that safflower oil could be substituted for almost all of them (“Of course, there’s no replacing olive oil,” he says). “Is it more expensive? Yes,” he says. “However, you’ve got to follow the oil’s life cycle.” Safflower also happens to be the best type of oil for converting into biodiesel, so UM’s used product, purchased at a discount, is returned to the producer to turn into fuel for its farm equipment.

Open conversation is another key starting point, says King. The Vermont Work Group started a conference, and invited distributors and state representatives to talk about creating more sustainable purchasing options. “It helped us understand some of the distributors’ issues,” she says. Local farmers often aren’t able to afford the expensive insurance policies the distributors required. “Because of the conversation, [the distributors] were able to lower it for a couple of folks,” she says. “It’s a really hard conversation to have.”

With the future in mind, LoParco is working with the Western Montana Growers Cooperative and a local food incubator on co-purchasing equipment to create more value-added products, such as pre-cut carrots, to help UM save on labor costs. “Instead of paying $10 a bag for processed carrots, we might pay $8 or $7, and in turn they’re able to turn around and use that piece of equipment to make sales that aren’t discounted [to other buyers],” he says of one recent cost-benefit analysis. “It puts more value into carrots for everybody.” In this scenario, the equipment ended up being affordable enough that a co-purchase didn’t make sense, but “these situations will continue to happen,” he says.

LoParco agrees that building relationships is the key to a successful collective. “We have conversations around possibilities, and we ask those kinds of questions: ‘Well, what can we do to make this better?’” he says. “There’s a lot of activity in this community across a whole spectrum of stakeholders for foodservice and water conservation. It’s very fertile ground to have those kinds of conversations.”