Conscious Kitchen Launches Nation's First Organic School Food Cooperative

Conscious Kitchen, a nonprofit organization that partners with school districts to improve the quality of meals served in school kitchens, has launched the nation's first organic school food purchasing cooperative. The Conscious Organic School Food Purchasing Cooperative (Conscious Co-op) aims to expand access to organic food in school kitchens while creating stronger markets for organic farmers and food makers.

The cooperative, which officially launched today, has partnered with two leading food distributors, UNFI and Sysco, to bridge the gap between schools and farms. UNFI, a leading distributor of natural and organic foods in North America, and Sysco, the global leader in foodservice distribution, will work with the cooperative to provide a wide range of organic products to participating school districts.

The Conscious Co-op has already secured the commitment of 17 founding school districts, which together serve more than 300,000 students. These districts, including Alameda USD, Albany USD, Berkeley USD, and others, have come together to leverage their collective purchasing power to make organic food more accessible in school meals. The cooperative is open to other eligible California school districts, which can access the cooperative's contracts through piggybacking, allowing them to benefit from the cooperative's pricing and product offerings without conducting their own bidding process.

The launch of the Conscious Co-op is a significant step in the effort to improve the quality of school meals and support the organic food industry.

The cooperative builds on Conscious Kitchen's extensive work with 136+ California school districts, which reach more than 2.1 million students. Over the past decade, Conscious Kitchen has worked alongside school districts and across the food system to understand what it takes to move more fresh, local, and organic food into school kitchens. The cooperative is designed to turn the massive purchasing potential of school food budgets into a market that can move organic food at a scale never seen before.

For Barbara Jellison, Vice President of Food Services at West Contra Costa USD, the Conscious Co-op represents the evolution of an idea tested and refined in school kitchens over many years.

The Conscious Co-op is part of a broader effort by Conscious Kitchen to make California schools a dependable market for organic food and create a path for schools across the country to do the same. The cooperative is working hand in hand with Conscious Kitchen's Recipe Project and Conscious Kitchen Recipe Collection, helping connect the meals districts want to serve with the ingredients they need to purchase.

The launch of the Conscious Co-op is being celebrated today at Cavallo Point Lodge in Sausalito, bringing together school nutrition leaders, organic farmers, food makers, distributors, state officials, and partners working to create a stronger organic school food system.