The Good Food Guide for Festival and Street-food Caterers - how to serve up sustainable food

This guide shows how festival, event and street-food caterers can serve great food, inspired by the healthy and sustainable food standards of the London 2012 Food Vision.

In partnership with Sustain’s Ethical Eats catering network and A Greener Festival, the Food Legacy programme is proud to present the Good Food Guide for Festival and Street-food Caterers. The aim of this guide is to provide practical advice to festival and other events caterers on how to implement positive changes.

It draws on the experience of pioneering event and street-food caterers who are using their dishes to improve the health and wellbeing of visitors, the livelihoods of farmers and other food providers, the welfare of farm animals, the conservation of precious wildlife and fish stocks, and the sustainability of our food system.

The guide contains top ten good food tips for stall-holders:

1. Take a look at the food you are serving. Auditing your ingredients against a checklist, such as the one at www.foodlegacy.org, is the first step on your sustainable food journey.
2. Decide what your policy on food will be, based on the issues you feel strongly about. Your audit sheet will help you identify where you can make positive change and decide what to prioritise.
3. Talk to your existing suppliers, find out how they can help you source the ingredients you want.
4. Go local, buy ingredients from small producers, farms and markets near you, and design your menus to reflect what’s available and in season.
5. Ensure you’re not serving fish and seafood listed as red ‘to avoid’ by the Marine Conservation Society: www.fishonline.org
6. Set a minimum standard for your meat such as British/Red Tractor certified, and use only free range eggs
7. Serve Fairtrade-certified products, including tea, coffee, sugar, bananas and chocolate
8. Use only compostable, or at the minimum biodegradable plates, containers, cups and cutlery
9. Ask event organisers to supply recycling bins for your waste
10. Communicate with and inform your customers. Use blackboards and other signage to explain where your ingredients come from and why it’s important.

The Good Food Guide for Festival and Street-Food Caterers includes inspiring case studies from green catering pioneers such as Sarah Moore, Street Kitchen and Squid & Pear. To accompany this publication, Sustain has also produced The Good Food for Festivals Guide, providing advice and practical suggestions for festival organisers to serve fresh, delicious and sustainable food, which also includes inspiring case studies of what can be achieved on good food, from leading annual events such as Glastonbury Festival, Latitude, Shambala and the Thames Festival.
 

Contents

Why serve sustainable food on your stall?

• Local and seasonal food
• Animal welfare
• Fairtrade
• Sustainable fish
• Environmentally-friendly food
• Healthier food
• Waste

Communicating your good food credentials

Appendices

• Appendix 1: Food Legacy Pledge
• Appendix 2: Useful contacts