Post-Summit Report:
Oct. 8-10, 2025 Chicago, IL
Hosted by the Center for Good Food Purchasing
at the South Shore Cultural Center
A Moment of Urgency and Possibility
When we began planning the Power of Procurement summit in early spring 2024, we envisioned a celebration — reflecting on a decade of progress and looking ahead to the next 10 years. But as we gathered in Chicago, the need was far more urgent.
Our democracy and public institutions are under attack. Communities are reeling from cuts to critical social safety net and nutrition programs. Food and farm workers — many of them immigrants — face increasing threats. Systems that were already failing us are now unraveling entirely.
And yet, this moment of crisis is also a moment of extraordinary possibility. As old systems crumble, we are no longer constrained by them. Communities are innovating. Cities and states are demonstrating real leadership. The most resilient places during recent crises have been those with strong cross-sector partnerships rooted in relationships and trust.
Now is the time to dream big,
imagine the world we know is possible,
and build it together.
The Chicago Good Food
Purchasing Declaration:
A Statement of Our Collective Power
Prior to the summit, in light of the urgency of the moment, our PoP25 Steering Committee came together to develop and align around the Chicago Good Food Purchasing Declaration as a statement of our power as a movement. The Declaration shared with summit participants articulates who we are, what we stand for, and what we commit to doing together.
Prior to the summit, in light of the urgency of the moment, our PoP25 Steering Committee came together to develop and align around the Chicago Good Food Purchasing Declaration as a statement of our power as a movement. The Declaration shared with summit participants articulates who we are, what we stand for, and what we commit to doing together.
Looking Out: Learning from Global Models
Who We Are
We represent diverse regions across the United States engaged every day in the critical work of feeding people in public-serving and community-based institutions. We are the countless people behind every meal that gets served in public institutions, emboldened by our vision of what is possible: Growing healthy, sustainable food; strengthening resilient, local economies; uniting for fair wages and better working conditions; advocating for transformation; creating the framework for change through policies; and providing resources that carry this work forward.
We claim the right and responsibility to defend, govern, and shape public and public-serving institutions as pillars of our communities. These institutions educate our children, care for sick and elderly people, provide services to veterans, connect us to nature, support tribal communities, and so much more. While performing these vital functions, they also provide millions of meals, sourcing ingredients from farms and businesses that create jobs and nourish our communities.
We gather in Chicago, united in our belief that good food transforms communities. Here, we articulate our collective resistance to the violent assault currently taking place to defund and dismantle the public sphere, and we band together in pursuit of a transformed food system that uplifts our communities. Together, we are the Good Food Purchasing movement.
Who We Are
Who We Are
We represent diverse regions across the United States engaged every day in the critical work of feeding people in public-serving and community-based institutions. We are the countless people behind every meal that gets served in public institutions, emboldened by our vision of what is possible: Growing healthy, sustainable food; strengthening resilient, local economies; uniting for fair wages and better working conditions; advocating for transformation; creating the framework for change through policies; and providing resources that carry this work forward.
We claim the right and responsibility to defend, govern, and shape public and public-serving institutions as pillars of our communities. These institutions educate our children, care for sick and elderly people, provide services to veterans, connect us to nature, support tribal communities, and so much more. While performing these vital functions, they also provide millions of meals, sourcing ingredients from farms and businesses that create jobs and nourish our communities.
We gather in Chicago, united in our belief that good food transforms communities. Here, we articulate our collective resistance to the violent assault currently taking place to defund and dismantle the public sphere, and we band together in pursuit of a transformed food system that uplifts our communities. Together, we are the Good Food Purchasing movement.
Declare Your Commitment
How We Designed the Summit
The summit brought together leaders from public institutions, community organizations, farms and food businesses, and philanthropy to do three things: look out, look in, and look up.
The summit brought together leaders from public institutions, community organizations, farms and food businesses, and philanthropy to do three things: look out, look in, and look up.
Looking Up: Defining Our Shared Vision & Where We're Headed
We shared a vision for 2040 that has guided the Center's work for the past five years, and invited Summit participants to help strengthen, refine, and advance it together—imagining a future where public food procurement serves the public good with equitable, transparent practices that reflect true accountability to communities..
Looking In: Building Our Collective Infrastructure
We deepened relationships across sectors, unified around shared commitments, and began building our playbook through cohort and affinity group conversations that explored pathways to scale and left participants with concrete next steps.
Looking Out: Learning From Global Models
We examined how communities around the world have transformed food systems amid political upheaval — learning from Brazil's National School Feeding Program and Solidarity Kitchens, Spanish municipal agroecological networks, and tribal nations across the U.S. that have used procurement, participatory governance, and food policy as tools for change.
Looking In: Building Our Collective Infrastructure
We shared a vision for 2040 that has guided the Center's work for the past five years, and invited summit participants to help strengthen, refine, and advance it together — imagining a future where public food procurement serves the public good with equitable, transparent practices that reflect true accountability to communities.
We deepened relationships across sectors, unified around shared commitments, and began building our playbook through cohort and affinity group conversations that explored pathways to scale and left participants with concrete next steps.
Looking Up: Defining Our Shared Vision & Where We're Headed
Looking Out: Learning From Global Models
We examined how communities around the world have transformed food systems amid political upheaval — learning from Brazil's National School Feeding Program and Solidarity Kitchens, Spanish municipal agroecological networks, and tribal nations across the United States that have used procurement, participatory governance, and food policy as tools for change.
Three Interconnected Next Steps
As we reflect on our time together, synthesize survey results, and debrief one-to-one conversations with so many of you, we offer a potential roadmap for how together we can operationalize the Declaration's commitments through three interconnected next steps:
As we reflect on our time together, synthesize survey results, and debrief one-to-one conversations with so many of you, we offer a potential roadmap for how together we can operationalize the Declaration's commitments through three interconnected next steps:
Co-Design a Policy & Action Agenda
In the spirit of galvanizing the many and the Declaration's commitment to mobilize and invest resources for food systems transformation, we will continue to look ahead to what we hope to build to chart a 15-year roadmap that is clear about what our movement needs to achieve our shared vision at city, state, regional, and national levels.
The agenda will identify both an ecosystem plan for critical infrastructure and capacity needs, and a state-to-scale policy framework that lays groundwork for future federal strategy. Reaching this future will require deep public and private investment in three critical areas: people power to keep us moving forward together in alignment, value chain coordination and infrastructure capacity, and adequate funds for institutions to purchase good food.
Investment will scale from local to nationwide — starting with 50+ cities building values-based procurement initiatives, expanding to state-level organizing and policy change, strengthening regional partnerships to support interstate supply chains, and ultimately advancing nationally networked strategy that integrates lessons from place-based work.
This agenda will be co-designed with stakeholders across the field, harnessing our collective wisdom to ensure we advance public policies, procurement practices, and accountability systems rooted in community leadership.
Build a Cross-Sector Good Food Purchasing Network
We draw inspiration from Brazil's City Network on Food Policy and the Spanish Network of Municipalities for Agroecology as potential models for how we might sustain coordination, facilitate peer learning, and drive accountability beyond the Summit. This type of structure could help us work and learn collectively to build power — spotting innovation, sharing best practices and peer-mentoring, supporting advocacy, and building the connective tissue that keeps us advancing together.
Through summit conversations, we listened and learned about what support and resources participants need to stay connected and level up their work. We are eager to collectively co-design and build together to meet those needs, creating the infrastructure for the inclusive, accountable, and accessible movement the Declaration calls for.
Advance the Chicago Good Food Purchasing Declaration
We will strategically advance the Declaration as our collective vision statement and call to action. Together, we will continue gathering commitments from organizations and leaders across sectors and geographies to align around this shared vision and hold ourselves accountable to action. The Declaration becomes the North Star that guides and unifies our work — a living document that grounds us in shared values while we navigate an uncertain landscape.
Co-Design a Policy & Action Agenda
Co-Design a Policy & Action Agenda
In the spirit of galvanizing the many and the Declaration's commitment to mobilize and invest resources for food systems transformation, we will continue to look ahead to what we hope to build to chart a 15-year roadmap that is clear about what our movement needs to achieve our shared vision at city, state, regional, and national levels.
The agenda will identify both an ecosystem plan for critical infrastructure and capacity needs, and a state-to-scale policy framework that lays groundwork for future federal strategy. Reaching this future will require deep public and private investment in three critical areas: people power to keep us moving forward together in alignment, value chain coordination and infrastructure capacity, and adequate funds for institutions to purchase good food.
Investment will scale from local to nationwide — starting with 50+ cities building values-based procurement initiatives, expanding to state-level organizing and policy change, strengthening regional partnerships to support interstate supply chains, and ultimately advancing nationally networked strategy that integrates lessons from place-based work.
This agenda will be co-designed with stakeholders across the field, harnessing our collective wisdom to ensure we advance public policies, procurement practices, and accountability systems rooted in community leadership.
Build a Cross-Sector Good Food Purchasing Network
We draw inspiration from Brazil's City Network on Food Policy and the Spanish Network of Municipalities for Agroecology as potential models for how we might sustain coordination, facilitate peer learning, and drive accountability beyond the summit. This type of structure could help us work and learn collectively to build power — spotting innovation, sharing best practices and peer-mentoring, supporting advocacy, and building the connective tissue that keeps us advancing together.
Through summit conversations, we listened and learned about what support and resources participants need to stay connected and level up their work. We are eager to collectively co-design and build together to meet those needs, creating the infrastructure for the inclusive, accountable, and accessible movement the Declaration calls for.
Advance the Chicago Good Food Purchasing Declaration
We will strategically advance the Declaration as our collective vision statement and call to action. Together, we will continue gathering commitments from organizations and leaders across sectors and geographies to align around this shared vision and hold ourselves accountable to action. The Declaration becomes the North Star that guides and unifies our work — a living document that grounds us in shared values while we navigate an uncertain landscape.
What We Heard:
Affirming Our Commitments
Throughout the summit, interconnected themes emerged from plenaries, workshops, and cohort conversations — themes that both affirm the Declaration's commitments and suggest a pathway forward.
Throughout the summit, interconnected themes emerged from plenaries, workshops, and cohort conversations — themes that both affirm the Declaration's commitments and suggest a pathway forward.
Grassroots organizing and community power are the foundation of lasting food systems change. As Dr. Ricardo Salvador noted, “There are two ways to make yourself heard in centers of political and economic power: be the money or be the many." The Good Food Purchasing movement has always been rooted in the power of the many — in organizing communities that institutions and governments must be accountable to.
Building this power includes maintaining solidarity with farmworkers and others fighting for immigrant rights, especially in this moment. Workers and communities on the ground are vital protections against exploitation and the intentional manipulation of data.
Strength in Solidarity: Power of the people
Grassroots organizing and community power are the foundation of lasting food systems change. As Dr. Ricardo Salvador noted, “There are two ways to make yourself heard in centers of political and economic power: be the money or be the many." The Good Food Purchasing movement has always been rooted in the power of the many — in organizing communities that institutions and governments must be accountable to.
Building this power includes maintaining solidarity with farmworkers and others fighting for immigrant rights, especially in this moment. Workers and communities on the ground are vital protections against exploitation and the intentional manipulation of data.
Strength in Solidarity: Power of the people
Transforming food systems requires strategic capital deployment across the entire ecosystem — public dollars, private investment, and philanthropic funding working in concert. As Kendal Chavez put it, adequate resourcing is fundamentally "a matter of prioritization… that requires leaning on policymakers and executives to carve out resources, time, and attention for food systems work.”
Workshop discussions revealed that an effective funding strategy requires careful systems planning, the right intermediary partners, and strategic use of philanthropy to bridge gaps where investment capital won't flow. Diverse types of public and private capital and investments across the supply chain are integral to creating access to the procurement opportunities that Good Food Purchasing provides.
Participants emphasized that continuing momentum will require comprehensive inclusion in the movement, communicating about people and impact (not just values), and doubling down on the operational work of shifting procurement processes within institutions. Legal resources and market research can fill knowledge gaps that impede strategic decision-making.
Funders challenged the philanthropic field to shift their questions from "How is your work unique?" to "Who's critical to your ecosystem?" — recognizing that collaborative infrastructure matters as much as individual innovation.ders challenged the philanthropic field to shift their questions from "How is your work unique?" to "Who's critical to your ecosystem?" — recognizing that collaborative infrastructure matters as much as individual innovation.
Funding the Future of Good Food: Resourcing a movement
Transforming food systems requires strategic capital deployment across the entire ecosystem — public dollars, private investment, and philanthropic funding working in concert. As Kendal Chavez put it, adequate resourcing is fundamentally "a matter of prioritization… that requires leaning on policymakers and executives to carve out resources, time, and attention for food systems work."
Workshop discussions revealed that an effective funding strategy requires careful systems planning, the right intermediary partners, and strategic use of philanthropy to bridge gaps where investment capital won't flow. Diverse types of public and private capital and investments across the supply chain are integral to creating access to the procurement opportunities that Good Food Purchasing provides.
Participants emphasized that continuing momentum will require comprehensive inclusion in the movement, communicating about people and impact (not just values), and doubling down on the operational work of shifting procurement processes within institutions. Legal resources and market research can fill knowledge gaps that impede strategic decision-making.
Funders challenged the philanthropic field to shift their questions from "How is your work unique?" to "Who's critical to your ecosystem?" — recognizing that collaborative infrastructure matters as much as individual innovation.
Funding the Future of Good Food: Resourcing a movement
Lasting change requires coordinated action across policy, infrastructure, and community organizing — with bold early adopters, sustained investment in relationships, and accountability to shared values.
To build and resource an enduring ecosystem, planning must be coordinated — passing policy while simultaneously investing in local farms, food hubs, and intermediaries that can meet institutional demand, and ensuring institutional operators understand and champion the work. Policy passage, field building, institutional capacity building, implementation, and local value chain infrastructure development must happen in tandem.
As a movement, our work is embedded in a larger fight for food justice, and we must be in solidarity with farmworkers and others in the fight for immigrant rights. Our work necessitates sustained coalition investment and flexible campaigns that are clear-eyed about our long-term commitments to shared values, so we can deepen our strategies and partnerships in the hardest areas, like animal welfare and labor.
Building an Enduring Ecosystem: Commitments to a collective vision
Building an Enduring Ecosystem: Commitments to a collective vision
Lasting change requires coordinated action across policy, infrastructure, and community organizing — with bold early adopters, sustained investment in relationships, and accountability to shared values.
To build and resource an enduring ecosystem, planning must be coordinated — passing policy while simultaneously investing in local farms, food hubs, and intermediaries that can meet institutional demand, and ensuring institutional operators understand and champion the work. Policy passage, field building, institutional capacity building, implementation, and local value chain infrastructure development must happen in tandem.
As a movement, our work is embedded in a larger fight for food justice, and we must be in solidarity with farmworkers and others in the fight for immigrant rights. Our work necessitates sustained coalition investment and flexible campaigns that are clear-eyed about our long-term commitments to shared values, so we can deepen our strategies and partnerships in the hardest areas, like animal welfare and labor.
Imagine if we invested in this work in 50 cities, then all 50 states, then across every region of this country.
Imagine a national network of public institutions and communities working together — transforming our food system from the ground up, with participatory governance structures that enable us to move collectively.
This is possible. Brazil started with one city. We're starting in Chicago and building from there.
The Power of Procurement 2025 summit was not a typical conference. It was the beginning of something new.
We spent two days imagining and planning together. Now it's time to take these commitments back to our communities, let them drive our work,
and bring them to life through conversations and convenings throughout our networks.
Actualizing What's Possible
We've planted the seeds. Now it's time to grow them.
We are building the food system we know is possible –
one that leaves no one behind.
"There's a term in political science called 'softening up.' And it's the idea that the more you hear something, the more plausible it becomes. And the way I like to summarize it is the more we talk about the impossible, the more possible the impossible becomes."
Dr. M. Jahi Johnson-Chappell
Director, Center for Regional Food Systems at Michigan State University, Professor, and W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair
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The Power of Procurement 2025 summit took place in Chicago, IL, in October 2025, bringing together nearly 300 leaders from across the food system to chart a path forward for transforming public food procurement.
Thank you to our Events Team, including PC Events & Experiences and the Power of Procurement 2025 Steering Committee, for shaping the PoP25 vision and bringing it to life.
To revisit summit recordings and presentations, please see the PoP25 Resources page.
To engage further with the Declaration, share feedback on this suggested pathway forward, or learn how to get involved,
please contact events@goodfoodpurchasing.org.
To submit your social media posts, blogs, or other reflections on your PoP experience for inclusion on an Attendees Highlights page on this site,
please complete the PoP Attendees Highlights form.
The Power of Procurement 2025 summit was made possible by:
