TABLE 1.

In-depth interview findings - key factors related to implementation themes.

Theme	Example quotes
Leaders championed sustainable food service	‘... our national nutrition and food service director ... they are very supportive of sustainability practices and encourage...the use as much as possible for each facility’. Pt 01 ‘I would say the general, like the chiefs, you know, the general support is there, they understand the importance, whether ... it’s because it’s the directive or it’s the right thing to do. They understand that it needs to be done’. Pt 04
Existing contract requirements are few	‘Well, I know in our [prime vendor] contract gets a national contract and so all the VAs ... have that, and there is language in that contract about sustainable purchases. But all also are able to have local contracts with bread and milk and produce. We don’t have a produce contract, but we deal with local farmers...’. Pt 13
Staff support helped to drive change, but some needed to be convinced of the benefits of sustainability practices	‘One example is we had a dishwasher when we first started using the composter and she complained of ‘toxic fumes’ coming from the composter. Yeah. We're like no, that’s the smell of soil gold there ...’. Pt 06
Rural and urban locations have their benefits and barriers when it comes to implementing food service sustainability practices	Living in a rural area makes local produce contracts easier: Just because of where we are, like, we're in a more rural area. ... we're near bigger cities by 45 minutes ... But, but we're more in the country, so we have local farmers. So, you know, if we were in [a large city] maybe, you know, we probably wouldn’t necessarily be able to procure as much locally’. Pt 13 Living in a rural area makes local produce contracts more difficult: ‘“And I think to get a produce contract, you're probably looking at a larger metropolitan area, which is not [xx rural area], or any of the sites that I'm working for now. It wasn’t for a lack of trying and I did look into it for a while. ... we had a produce contract maybe for a year or 2, ...then they dropped it just because... we could only order, I don’t know, like 800 dollars or something every week and that wasn’t enough for them to keep the contract, so we just don’t have the, you know, we didn’t have the volume’”. Pt 05
COVID-19 made food service sustainability practices more difficult	The more ecologically sound disposables were more difficult to procure, as noted by this participant: ‘Yeah, we're limited on what we can purchase. COVID ... exactly, you know. Yeah, we were Styrofoam-free until that’s all you could buy, or something like that’. Pt 13