FRIENDS’ HOUSE CATERING
Readers may remember that QCA worked with Friends’ House Hospitality to achieve the Compassion in World Farming Good Egg Award in 2009, which was received at the Houses of Parliament by Paul Grey, in charge of Hospitality.
Adam Pannell now reports:
In 2010 we brought our catering standards in line with the Soil Association’s Food for Life catering mark. The Restaurant was awarded the Silver Mark. Hospitality Catering and the Café was not submitted, as our percentage of freshly prepared items on site did not match the criteria, but we have moved things forward so they should get included when this is renewed in August.
A brief overview of areas of work/development:
Fish – In February this year, we were accredited with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) chain of custody for supplying sustainable fish. This currently covers specifically Salmon and Hake, although we are using other MSC products.
Eggs – We have moved our use of whole eggs to Organic free-range. These are supplied by Rookery Farm in Sussex or Spring Farm in Essex.
Meat – We have recently taken on Longwood Farm as a new supplier. They are an organic farm in Suffolk and we have started to have a weekly direct delivery of organic meat products from them. Due to the frequency of deliveries, we cannot reply on them solely as a supplier, and are looking to source other organic farms for meat supply.
Dairy – We have used organic milk since 2009 and have committed to purchasing organic butter, cream and cheese where these are bought as a whole product. These are bought where possible. CIWF have brought out a Good Dairy Award this year which we will look to apply for.
Procurement – We were short listed for the City of London Sustainability Awards for the work we have done with our catering procurement to make Friends House a more sustainable venue.
Vegan – In November 2010, we signed up to the Vegan Society’s ‘Vegan Friendly’ promise to promote vegan products within the building. We aim as a standard to ensure that there is a vegan alternative to all products served.
QCA says: Many thanks to Adam Pannell at Friends’ House Hospitality for the very hard work he has done to meet demanding criteria.
We are also delighted to hear from Paul Grey, Head of Hospitality, that two Green Meat-Free days take place at Friends’ House each week – Monday and Friday.
Please support them when you visit Friends’ House!
April 2011