|
Many public sector catering managers & buyers feel daunted by the issues surrounding sustainable food procurement. Many institutions have long-term contracts in place with national suppliers and it is difficult to know how to begin transforming food purchasing practices.
Listed below are some simple steps you can take to start procuring more local, seasonal, sustainable food for your organisation. These steps involving changing the way you think about food and acting on what you discover.
Commercial retailers & restaurants are benefitting from the upsurge in public interest in food provenance. Creating a food culture in a public sector environment is a natural fit with current government concerns about environmental impacts and food-related health issues. However, changes in food procurement need to be sustainable, so above all, this process needs to be commercially viable.
Transforming food procurement in a public sector organisation is a slow process, and the steps you will take at the beginning will probably be very small. Often progress is made on a product by product basis, but as your food culture evolves, the progress you make will gather momentum.
The main activities when undertaking a food procurement project are:
- Gaining information on the provenance & sustainability criteria of food supplied through existing contracts, enabling catering managers to make an informed choice when purchasing
- Improving relationships with incumbent suppliers, such as regional wholesalers, so that more local & regional produce is offered
- Building a visible food culture within your organisation by bringing the ‘face behind the food’ into hospital wards & restaurants, schools & care homes
- Increasing consistent demand for local food
- Working with other public sector buyers to strengthen demand in your area
Step 1 – Think about where the food comes from that you currently buy
In the beginning, you don’t need to make any immediate changes to the way you buy food to start developing your food culture. Choosing from a simple price list allows many buyers to sidestep the issue of where produce originates, and make decisions based solely on price criteria. Simply finding out where some of your food comes from at the moment is a good first step.
Suggested activities:
- Sit down with your suppliers and let them know you would like more information about where the food comes from and how much of it is seasonal.
- Give yourself a starting point by trying to establish how much produce is sourced from the region / UK.
- Agree how the quality of information could be improved to incorporate details of provenance and production methods. Eg. place of origin; whether any meat comes from elsewhere in the EU/world, animal welfare information
- Consider seasonality in relation to your menus by using seasonality charts and create opportunities for seasonal substitutions in your menus. eg. write ‘a selection of seasonal vegetables’ rather than specifying exactly what the vegetables will be.
Step 2 – Taking action
The next step involves relationship-building with your current suppliers who are likely to be wholesalers & distributors who buy from many sources, including farmers, wholesale markets & other primary wholesalers.
Starting with just a few items will give you a subject you can explore with catering teams in your organisation and a starting point for demonstrating success to your customers.
Suggested activities:
- Commit to using seasonal items as much as possible, including meat and fish, as food produced in season is usually lowest in price
- Identify some production strengths in your area. eg. if your county has a lot of apple growers, apples are likely to be plentiful and affordable when in season
- Communicate your intentions to your teams and ask for their support. Start the process by sharing some food together.
Step 3 – Make food culture more visible in your organisation
Meals in schools, hospitals & care homes are often an important talking point in the daily routine. Mealtimes represent an opportunity to make a visible statement about an institution’s attitude to buying & preparing food. A shared culture of sourcing and enjoying good, local food can quickly become a much appreciated and talked-about asset to the establishment.
Suggested activities:
- Encourage catering teams to participate in organised visits to farms & producers who supply them.
- Build menus around seasonal produce and highlight this to the consumer.
- Produce point-of-sale literature. Eg. menu cards, posters, noticeboards, which tell the story of the farmers & producers behind the food.
- Highlight existing successes in local food procurement to senior management and local press
- Share food regularly as a team
Step 4 – Have a clear vision
Once you have established information channels which give you the information you need about the food you buy and you have made some changes to what you buy, you should be ready to set yourself some more ambitious targets.
Suggested activities:
- Measure the level of regional produce you receive in several key sectors & identify products & product categories which you can target over the coming months
- Build food sustainability into your training activities
- Arrange seasonal promotions which involve customers & staff
- Set yourself some longer-term targets which include other sustainability criteria – recycling, packaging, bio detergents.
Step 5 – Sharing your knowledge
Working with other buyers in your area provides a means to further consolidate demand in each region for good, fresh, local food. Change on a large scale can only come about if farmers & producers can rely on continuity of demand and plan their production accordingly. Acting together with other local public sector buyers will give confidence to the suppliers you all deal with. Your local food group can put you in contact with other interested parties.
Note: Many collaborative & support groups do already exist. eg. NHS Catering Advisory Groups and LACA meetings. With consultation with members, we should be able to determine how to move forward without duplicating existing efforts.
|