Helene York

Adjunct Faculty—Sustainable Food Systems program, and Research Fellow, Culinary Institute of America, New York

Helene York teaches Systems Thinking, Sustainability and Climate Change in the CIA’s Sustainable Food Systems program. The course’s research component, What We Eat, focuses on the future availability of the world’s most important foods.

Her recent book, Incorporating Sustainability into Procurement Decision Making for Food Supply Chains (C&R Press, 2026) draws upon her two decades’ experience applying a sustainability lens to food procurement decision-making in senior supply chain decision-making roles within the contract food services industry. She pioneered numerous supply chain innovations around the world, building partnerships, improving responsibility, decreasing costs, and increasing overall supply. She advises companies on how to formulate and execute food procurement strategies.

Almost an East Asian Studies major in college, she has devoured Japanese cuisine and food history since 1985 and participated in many supply chain investigations there.