- Community Kitchen to sell locally-sourced produce to office workers
- Alternative to ready meals
- Food biked in each day from suppliers
In the light of the horsemeat scandal a timely opening for a new project in London ‘Midtown Community Kitchen' who have set up a new pop-up shop and will sell only localy grown produce, biked into town from their suppliers. I have a feeling this idea could take off!
Businesses can trace where the ingredients used in their canteens have come from and ensure their employees eat local, safely sourced meals on their lunch breaks with the help of a new initiative from inmidtown, one of the UK’s most successful Business Improvement Districts (BIDs).
The 570 businesses it represents in Midtown London – Bloomsbury, Holborn and St Giles – are being encouraged to support the pop-up ‘Midtown Community Kitchen’, which launches this week at 56 New Oxford Street in Holborn and sells locally-produced food to employees in the area.
The kitchen will bike in fresh supplies from bakeries, shops, restaurants and even honey from local beehives in Midtown each day and inform customers of exactly where its food is sourced. If the two-month pilot is a success, it will evolve into providing employees in the area with packaged, safely sourced ‘ready meals’ later this year too.
Tass Mavrogordato, CEO of inmidtown, said: “Healthy employees are productive employees and we collectively want to ensure that staff in Midtown know what they are eating and where it has come from. As questions are asked about the quality of food supplies across Europe, we are highlighting how consumers can get quality food within walking distance of their desks – by supporting local butchers, bakers and flatbread wrap makers in their local community.
“Quality, locally produced food will also attract more visitors to the area, who will want a taste of its produce along with a look at its sights.”
Vegetables used and sold will be sourced from ‘green roofs’ situated on the rooftops of four large buildings nearby, such as the law firms Mishcon de Reya and Olswang, which inmidtown is currently installing to emulate the network of green roofs across Midtown Manhattan and Chicago in the US. Further produce will be supplied by up to 40 independent food producers from the area.
As it grows in size, the kitchen will be staffed by local residents on work experience placements and apprenticeships seeking training in the catering sector. The pop-up will be open seven days a week from 8am until after lunchtime, catering to office workers mid-week and tourists at the weekends.
