Vail Resorts wants to keep its guests in tip-top shape for a day on the slopes. To do so, the company will now serve natural, hormone-free meats and organic dairy products in its on-mountain restaurants at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone resorts in Colorado, Heavenly in California and restaurants in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park.
The program, to begin with the 2007-08 snow sports season that opens in November, means Vail will purchase nearly a half million pounds of meat from Coleman Natural Meats and nearly 200,000 pounds of organic butter, cheese and yogurt plus 64,000 gallons of organic milk and cream from Horizon Organic. Both companies are based in Colorado.
It’s a lot of food:
— 33,000 pounds of deli meat
— 180,000 pounds of ground beef
— 15,000 pounds of beef brisket
— 137,000 pounds of chicken
— 44,000 pounds of hot dogs
— 18,000 pounds of bacon
— 20,000 pounds of pork ribs and loin
— 48,000 pounds of butter
— 137,000 pounds of cheese
— 30,000 pounds of yogurt
— 64,000 gallons of milk, half & half and cream
Forty one mountain venues serve 2.5 million lunches at the five ski resorts every ski season. The effort to serve natural and organic products is, according to Vail, the largest such undertaking in the travel and tourism industry.
We’re not just talking about grab-and-go cheeseburgers at a slope-side snack shack. The program includes Keystone’s AAA Four Diamond-rated Alpenglow Stube, Vail’s Two Elk Lodge and three restaurants operated by Grand Teton Lodge Co. in Grand Teton National Park.
Vail’s program represents the Broomfield, Colorado-based resort company’s first step in its Good Food on a Grand Scale effort. The company expects to work with its other vendors to increase the amount of natural and organic food offered in the future.
Read more at www.VailResorts.com.