In The News

April 5—Eat’n Park Hospitality Group, which includes Cura Hospitality and Parkhurst Dining Services, has increased its local purchasing by 13% over 2010 local purchases.

Local purchases for Eat’n Park now total $23 million. Cura and Parkhurst accounted for $13 million of the local purchases.

“Our success is made possible by a commitment that Eat’n Park Hospitality Group made over 12 years ago to enhance the freshness of its food by creating an innovative local purchasing program it calls FarmSource, recognized in the industry as one of the top local purchasing programs,” Jeff Broadhurst, CEO and President of Eat’n Park Hospitality Group, said in a press release.

With the help of Jamie Moore, director of sourcing andsustainability for Eat’n Park, the company has partnered with more than 200 local growers within a 125-mile radius of the organization’s service areas.

“The increase in awareness of how far food travels from harvest to table is certainly driving local sourcing,” Moore said in the release. “This decreases air pollution and the need for oil. The other is the education and training we provide to our workforce on the benefits of buying local, whether it’s through our work with PASA, Slow Food USA, tours of farms [or] local producers of food. We also encourage our suppliers to focus their purchasing efforts on procuring from local food producers.”