Site Stories: How BaxterStorey made it to Silver

BaxterStorey, the catering and hospitality provider for Scottish Government workplace locations, upgraded to the Food for Life Served Here (FFLSH) Silver award in just a few short months.

Scottish Government workplaces that hold the Food for Life Served Here Silver award are Atlantic Quay in Glasgow, and Victoria Quay, St Andrews House and Saughton House in Edinburgh. These locations serve an estimated 53,000 meals each year. BaxterStorey, which achieved the FFLSH Bronze award for the locations in April 2023, has continued its commitment to serving good food through this upgrade.

Increasing organic spend

For the FFLSH Silver award, award holders spend at least 5 percent of the ingredients budget for their service on organic produce. This in addition to the standards met at Bronze, including freshly preparing a minimum of 75 percent of dishes are freshly prepared from unprocessed ingredients.

BaxterStorey serves Mossgiel organic milk at all the awarded Scottish Government Workplace locations, helping them to achieve the Silver FFLSH award. Data from the Cool Food Pro calculator – a carbon savings calculator tool created for the catering sector – shows that by using organic milk, BaxterStorey are saving an estimated 11,529 Kg CO2e every month.

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.

“When I first started and I opened the portal, it was quite a shock. You see all these tasks and modules to do, so it can be quite overwhelming, But Sue McVey, one of Food for Life Scotland’s Menu and Catering Skills Officers, was hands on from the very beginning, answering my every question and helping us at each step,” said Samantha Woodhouse, Group Lead Chef, BaxterStorey.

“If I put something in via an invoice, she can look at it and say ‘you need a bit more information’ or she helped us with codes for where the produce was coming from, so we can then go back to our supplier and say ‘this isn’t QMS, we’re looking for QMS’ and it locks that down. Sue has been a massive help through our journey with Food for Life.

“As we were moving to Silver, we were building on the knowledge we had learnt through Bronze. Bronze is the big adjustment, but it’s also a stepping stone to improving our offerings with more local and organic produce. I was quite surprised at how fast we got through it, but I think it’s the base work that we had that made it possible.

“There’s a perception that organic is expensive, but it’s good quality and it’s showing that you’re using Scottish produce for the flour and milk. It’s important to support Scotland where you can.”

FFLS in the public sector

The FFLS programme has been funded by Scottish Government since 2012. It is best known for recognising local authorities for their school meals services, with 17 Scottish local authorities holding the 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. Training has been one of the offerings to help BaxterStorey Food for Life standards across their sites and units.

“Training with Food for Life Scotland has been a big help – we’re looking at expanding our training offerings to both our units and senior management, so they can get a stronger understanding of what we’re doing and why it’s important,” said Samantha.

“We’re always learning and that’s one of the things I like about the Food for Life programme – constantly improving your offerings and your knowledge at the same time.

“The advice I would give to anyone else is to reach out to the Food for Life Scotland team if you need help, because that’s what they’re here for. Even if it is sending one email to check something, they’re on hand to help,” said Samantha. “No question is silly – and I’ve asked a lot of silly questions!”

To discover more of BaxterStorey’s journey with Food for Life Scotland, you can read here.