The Source
Beautiful writing about delicious British food. Articles, comments and musings from our contributors.
Our Journey So Far
As the Catering Manager at Milton Keynes Hospital, I am proud to share how we have helped our community, local suppliers and farmers get their food into our hospital and to hopefully inspire you to do the same.
I am passionate for locally grown and supplied produce, and working with Love British Food has empowered me to change the way the hospital works with suppliers and supports local food.
The first local supplier we worked with was AB Fruits, a small fruit and veg supplier just 27 miles away from our site. AB Fruits understand our ambition for nutritious, healthy food at the hospital and were key to ensuring we use seasonal produce at its most fresh, sourced right here on our doorstep.
We encourage our Catering Team to meet our suppliers face to face to gain an understanding of how they work, and to check they share the same values as us. We visited AB Fruits and took a closer look at the produce they supply and how they support British farmers. They took us to visit one of their farmers - Crossways Farm – and we saw the vegetables being grown in often challenging British weather. We learnt about watering crops by irrigation and how the crops are rotated on the land. The crops include leeks, celeriac, pumpkins, squash, savoy cabbage, brussels sprouts, asparagus, purple sprouting broccoli and cauliflower – most of which we use at the Hospital.
In 2023, we introduced Farm to Table specials to our hospital menus and try to do one of these each month. We give full traceability on the food items, even down to the field it is from. We want to further develop this to push more seasonality of food and educate our customers (who are our patients, visitors and staff) on how they might make seasonal, local choices at home.
The Catering Team also visited our local butcher – The Buckingham Butcher. They have been in the butchery trade for over 20 years supplying restaurants and schools and now us as their first hospital. They are incredibly passionate about working with local farmers and buying British, and keen to supply more hospitals in the future. Working directly with the butcher gives us full traceability and access to see them working at any time.
Finding local suppliers in our area was not easy, particularly as hospitals operate to complex and high standards, have demanding procurement processes and require stringent Hygiene certification. However, we strongly believe a local hospital should support local businesses and vice versa. This supports the health of the community, the local economy and demonstrates good social values.
We are always conscious of needing to get value for money, and I believe our approach is cost-effective and responsible. We are able to support local community suppliers and, at the same time, ensure patients have access to tasty, nourishing food that contributes to their recovery and, I hope, sends them home quicker and healthier. For our staff, we know that they can rely upon decent meals and snacks that give them nourishment, comfort and sustained energy to work in our very demanding environment.
My recommendation is the food that we serve should come straight from a local farm or supplier close to you.
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