Love British Food Hospital and Care Catering Working Group
Introduction
Simply put, it seems that everyone agrees that there is a need for Champions to INSPIRE and ENABLE catering managers to make the most of the opportunities to buy British that the potential new Government Buying Standards will provide. None of the current mechanisms and programmes are addressing this.
The aim of this new group is to encourage more NHS Trusts and care homes to:
- Run a British Food Fortnight menu during the national food celebrations that take place every year in the last week of September and the first week of October.
- Use the national food celebrations to showcase existing British seasonal produce on your menus or to use it as an opportunity to introduce new British suppliers on to your menus.
- Start the process of forming new supply chains for the long term with at least 3 – 4 British suppliers. If there are good suppliers in the vicinity of the Trust or care home then look to prioritise inviting them to apply to tenders. Look on your doorstep first, than nationally!
This is not a flag waving exercise for British food or indeed for the national food promotion; just an acknowledgement that we all want more nutritious, fresh quality food on our hospital and care home menus and sourcing British, from suppliers you can build a relationship with, is the best way to achieve this. British Food Fortnight is a proven catalyst at encouraging people to action – a calendar date gives focus and prompts action...so we want all Trusts and care homes to take part even if that may be changing a single supplier.
Who sits on the Love British Food Hospitals and Care Catering Working Group
Director Co-Chairs
Members
Supporters
Associate Members
What we do
Communicate best practice
The group is using Love British Food’s considerable social media presence to promote its members as leaders who can inspire, persuade and enable other NHS catering managers to take part in British Food Fortnight.
There is a rolling programme of online features on the wonderful British and locally sourced food that already features on many hospital menus.
See our new online hub for advice from the very best people in the industry. They talk about how they source British, what inspired them to do so, provide tips and invaluable lessons they have learnt as well as sample menus.
Click here to tap into the expertise of everyone on the group
Organise farm visits for NHS catering managers: this programme is being expanded to include care caterers too
Four farm visits have been organised to date, in Worcestershire, Dorset, Shropshire and Yorkshire. Caterers are shown around the farm learning about the environmental, sustainable and nutritional benefits of buying from British farms. We then have a working lunch where we discuss opportunities and challenging in building British supply chains and share experiences and advice. For full details of our programme of visits, click here: https://www.lovebritishfood.co.uk/farm-visits
Follow @LoveBritishFood for regular updates.
Love British Food Hospitals Group in the media
A fantastic write-up of our first Love British Food Hospitals Working Group from Hospital Food & Service Magazine.
