Restaurants 'adopt a plot' to support community food growers

London restaurants are being encouraged to 'adopt a plot' and buy fresh and seasonal produce from community food growing spaces in the capital. The sustainable catering network Ethical Eats has teamed up with Capital Growth, the campaign supported by the Mayor of London and London Food Link to get London growing, to help match up restaurants with local community food growers. Ethical Eats is a Big Lottery funded project also promoted by the Food Legacy programme.

If you are a restaurant or caterer interested in getting your hands on the very freshest ingredients from hyper-local growing sites in London, then get in contact with the Ethical Eats team. Contact: kelly@sustainweb.org or duncan@sustainweb.org; or call: 0203 5596 777.

If you are a community interested in growing food to sell, including to restaurants and caterers, you can find out more about how to do so in the new report. free to download from the Sustain website: A Growing Trade, was published in January 2012. The report showcases examples of food that is being produced as close to the market place as possible and the opportunities for community food growing projects to make links more widely in the community as well as generate income to contribute towards project costs and to lift the ambitions of the people involved.

What’s in it for the restaurant?

Super-fresh, super-local produce, usually picked on the day of delivery. The opportunity to ask the growing space to produce unusual crops to order (particularly herbs and salads). A direct link with the people growing some of your ingredients – and a great story to tell your customers. The warm glow you get from supporting a local community organisation!

Ethical Eats is holding an afternoon meet-up event in January 2012, for London chefs, food professionals, and growers, to showcase some of the existing relationships already set up under the scheme and hopefully establish a few more. As well as hearing from growers and restaurants about their experiences of Adopt-a-Plot, participants will have the opportunity to establish their own supply relationships, plus share ideas on the best crops to be planted for the 2012 growing season.

Read inspiring case studies at:

• www.sustainweb.org/foodlegacy/wenlock_herb_garden
• www.sustainweb.org/foodlegacy/growing_communities_restaurant_salad
• www.sustainweb.org/foodlegacy/restaurants_adopt_a_plot
• www.sustainweb.org/foodlegacy/salop_drive_market_garden

THIS EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED. Get on the Ethical Eats mailing list to be informed of future events. Contact: kelly@sustainweb.org or duncan@sustainweb.org