The Source
Beautiful writing about delicious British food. Articles, comments and musings from our contributors.
Barnsley Council in South Yorkshire is taking part in British Food Fortnight. Here the Project Officer who is organising their activities writes about everything taking place during the two weeks.
I am a Project Officer for Barnsley Council and have put together a programme of events for British Food Fortnight called 'Good Food Fortnight' to promote food businesses in the markets, town centre and wider borough.
A week before the Fortnight started, we launched the 'Barnsley Larder' cookbook, a collection of recipes supplied by the Market Kitchen vendors (street food units in the market), market traders and local restaurants. The recipes range from traditional British dishes, such as the Barnsley Chop and Shepherd's Pie, to traditional international dishes, such as Pork Gyros and Prawn Tom Yum Soup. The book also includes helpful hints and tips about food preparation, as well as exactly where to source the ingredients locally. To celebrate the launch, we held cooking demonstrations in the atrium of the market - The Market Oven demonstrated their Onion Bread recipe, Dolly's Desserts made Rocky Road Cookie Dough and Jar Bar made Pork Gyros, Cevapi and Lepinje.
During the cooking demonstrations, we handed out recipe cards. We are now running a social media cooking competition; we are posting copies of the recipes from the demonstrations on social media and encouraging members of the public to recreate the recipes before posting a picture on social media tagging the official Barnsley & District Markets pages. They will then receive a free copy of the 'Barnsley Larder' when they show their post to a member of the Markets Team in the market between Wednesday 29th September and Saturday 2nd October.
Alternatively, members of the public will also be able to get a free copy of the cookbook when they register with the Mi Rewards scheme. Mi Rewards is a loyalty-based rewards programme whereby customers gain points when they shop at registered businesses. They are then entered into prize draws based on the amount of points they have collected. If members of the public register with Mi Rewards during September, they will receive a free copy of the cookbook when they show proof of their account to a member of the Markets Team in the market between Wednesday 29th September and Saturday 2nd October.
To celebrate 'Good Food Fortnight' we are planning to run a series of double-point promotions through the Mi Rewards scheme. Each weekday (excluding Sunday) will have a theme, and when customers shop at the businesses associated with that theme on that day, they will receive double-points with Mi Rewards. The themes are: Meat-Free Monday, Treat-Yourself Tuesday, Heart-Warming Wednesday, Meat-Feast Thursday, Fish-Supper Friday and Savoury Saturday. To promote this further, I will promote different local businesses throughout the fortnight via our social media channels and state which businesses customers will be able to receive the double-points at.
On Wednesday 29th September, local poet and author Ian MacMillan will be giving a short talk about the cookbook and signing copies of the 'Barnsley Larder' for members of the public who have signed up for Mi Rewards. There will be a member of staff on site to help customers sign up for the scheme if they haven't done so already.
We will then be running more cooking demonstrations between Thursday 30th September and Saturday 2nd October, although the timetable for these is yet to be confirmed.
As you can see, we are using British Food Fortnight to promote local food businesses and to encourage residents to shop locally, using local produce. And we are having a lot of fun doing so!
Share:
You may also be interested in...
