Glasgow public sector sites achieve award for serving healthy and sustainable meals
Image: Cabinet Secretary Mairi Gougeon presents Food for Life Served Here Bronze award certificates to BaxterStorey. Front row (L-R): Nicola Jamieson, Samantha Woodhouse, Cabinet Secretary Mairi Gougeon, Paul Bonner, Mark McCulloch. Back row (L-R): Sam Smith, Scott Nolan.
Catering teams at Scottish Government workplaces and the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service have achieved a national award for serving fresh and sustainable menus in a win for public sector food. BaxterStorey, the hospitality provider for the sites, has achieved the Food for Life Served Here (FFLSH) Bronze award for serving food that’s good for health, the environment and the local economy.
Scottish Government workplaces awarded include Atlantic Quay in Glasgow, and Victoria Quay, St Andrews House and Saughton House in Edinburgh. Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service sites awarded include Glasgow Sheriff Court, Glasgow High Court, Edinburgh Sheriff Court and Parliament House. Combined, these sites serve an estimated 222,000 meals each year.
The award was presented to BaxterStorey Operations Director Mark McCulloch, Group Lead Chef Samantha Woodhouse, and General Manager Paul Bonner by Mairi Gougeon, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands and the Food for Life Scotland team at an event yesterday at Atlantic Quay in Glasgow.
The Food for Life Scotland (FFLS) programme, led by Soil Association Scotland and funded by Scottish Government, provides a framework through which local authorities and public sector sites can ensure they are serving good food. This is done by following a set of standards to achieve the FFLSH award at bronze, silver or gold level.
The programme was set up to maximise the power of public sector food as a force for good and to ensure that it has a positive impact on communities across Scotland. As well as the health benefits of serving freshly prepared food, the buying power of the public sector has huge potential to support sustainable suppliers, feed back into the local economy and develop resilient supply chains.
The FFLSH Bronze award recognises that a minimum of 75 percent of dishes are freshly prepared from unprocessed ingredients. Meals are free from undesirable trans fats, sweeteners, additives and all genetically modified ingredients. Catering teams also use free range eggs, higher welfare meat and ingredients from sustainable and ethical sources.
BaxterStorey are working with local, sustainable suppliers, including sourcing milk from Mossgiel Organic Farm. They buy Scottish vegetables from Mark Murphys and the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service sites also use WasteKnot boxes, which include surplus seasonal vegetables that would otherwise go to waste.
The FFLS programme has been funded by Scottish Government since 2012. It is best known for recognising local authorities for their school meals service, with 17 Scottish local authorities holding their FFLSH award. In 2022, FFLS launched the Food for Life Scotland Public Sector Expansion Pilot, with the aim of scaling the programme to bring the award to other public sector sites, initially in Glasgow, and across Scotland in the future.
The pilot is part of Scottish Government’s manifesto commitment to increase the use of healthy, Scottish produce and to explore how to embed a Food for Life approach in the public sector.
Mairi Gougeon, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands said, “I’d like to congratulate the BaxterStorey Scottish Government workplaces and Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service sites on becoming the newest holders of the Food for Life Served Here Bronze award.
“The Food for Life Served Here Award provides an important mechanism to achieve broader health, climate and economic goals. It is the latest example of our ongoing efforts to make Scotland a Good Food Nation.
“I would urge other public sector organisations who wish to make their menus more sustainable to contact the Food for Life Scotland team.”
Sarah Duley, Head of Food, Soil Association Scotland, said, “The team at BaxterStorey has done an amazing job of connecting with local producers and developing their menus in line with Food for Life principles. We would like to thank them for all their hard work and for showing what can be achieved in public sector catering. This is the first award to be given as part of the Food for Life Scotland Public Sector Expansion Pilot, and we hope that more will follow. The Food for Life Scotland team can offer support to public sector caterers in Glasgow, to follow in the footsteps of both BaxterStorey and our 17 local authority caterers.”
Mark McCulloch, Operations Director, BaxterStorey Scotland, said, “We are delighted to be awarded the Food for Life Served Here Bronze Award. I’m thrilled our teams have been recognised for their commitment to serving fresh, nutritious meals that promote health, sustain the environment, and support the local economy. We are continuously innovating our food offer and this award motivates us further to continue creating hospitality experiences that positively impact our customers and communities."