Councilmember Won proposes pilot for food quality feedback on large city food service contracts

Council Member Julie Won introduced Intro 9-05 to establish a six-month pilot program for food quality feedback surveys at city food service contracts valued at $1,000,000 or more. Won and her office cited citywide annual food spending (which the sponsor noted the mayor’s Office of Food Policy estimated at about $500,000,000) and described past oversight hearings and contract failures that yielded large-scale food waste and poor quality.

Won said the pilot would collect standardized, anonymous feedback from consumers at shelters, schools, hospitals, senior centers and other sites served by city food contracts. Participating agencies would post the pilot findings online within 30 days after the pilot concludes, and the Office of Food Policy would evaluate the program and recommend next steps. The sponsor argued the pilot would provide site-level information about vendors and help the city stop doing business with contractors delivering substandard food.

Won described examples raised in oversight hearings — including contract-driven waste and reports of inedible or rotten meals — and framed the pilot as a tool to hold vendors and agencies accountable for public spending on food. The transcript records the sponsor’s introduction and rationale; no roll-call vote or final outcome is included in the excerpt.

Ending: Sponsor positioned the pilot as an accountability and transparency measure for high-value food contracts; the council introduced the item and recorded sponsor remarks but the transcript excerpt does not contain a final vote or pilot start date.