Universities and colleges are facing unprecedented pressure to source their food locally:

  • Rising prices and supply chain failures are pushing buyers to build resiliency within their local food shed.
  • Development and widespread adoption of the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) means schools need local and sustainable suppliers to boost their sustainability scores.
  • Students are demanding transparency in the dining halls and holding schools accountable for their sourcing practices.

Unfortunately, if buyers want to source sustainable, local, and ethically-produced ingredients at large volumes, they — or their foodservice provider — are stuck negotiating with distributors or navigating nightmarish logistics themselves, wasting valuable time and money. Until now.

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Permanent is a local aggregator with a nationwide network.

We represent hundreds of local produce, dairy, and protein farms, most women-led or BIPOC-led, with sustainable, organic, or regenerative practices. Permanent’s catalogue isn’t just unique, it’s full-service — that means it can grow to surpass your local sourcing goals on impact, volume, and price. Permanent integrates into your existing systems as a single vendor so your workflow stays the same.

With Permanent, your chefs get quality ingredients, your procurement team gets better prices with less hassle, and your farmer suppliers get uplifted.

The best part? You get all the credit.

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Procurement gets:

  • Access to local suppliers who surpass your sourcing goals within one single vendor (Permanent)
  • Competitive prices with far less volatility than the broader market
  • Flexibility to order week over week or pre-order to get large discounts

Permanent is a single vendor whose catalogue can grow to meet all of your local sourcing needs. Whether you’re self-operated or foodservice-operated, simply add Permanent as a vendor in your or their existing procurement system.

And whenever it’s time to expand your local catalogue, our sourcing team is just an email or call away. All of Permanent’s farmers are GAP-certified and pre-vetted so you can click with confidence.

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Chefs get:

  • Local, delicious, and sustainable ingredients from trusted farmers in your region
  • A personalized crop calendar to see what’s growing now, and what will be growing when you need it.
  • The ability to plan a seasonal menu, (way) ahead of the season

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Sustainability gets: 

  • To achieve, track, and report on its sustainability impact with ease
  • Complete source traceability for every ingredient purchased
  • Rich storytelling to get recognized by your student eaters and beyond

Permanent makes it easy to become a leader in sustainability. Not only do we provide complete source traceability, which helps with Scope 3 emissions calculations, we also provide daily QR codes and marketing materials so students can scan at the salad bar to see the story behind the source.  Permanent’s online dashboard reports your impact spending towards AASHE STARS 2.2 and Real Food Standards 2.1.