Sourcing locally helps to keep money circulating in your local economy, supporting jobs and other independent businesses.
As a business, there may be lots of opportunities for you to shorten your food and drink supply chains and support local companies. If you think about it, there are probably more ways you could make a difference than at first glance, for example:
- Sourcing the tea and coffee for the staff kitchen from a social enterprise
- Swapping the supermarket for a local sandwich shop for lunches
- Working with your catering contractors to ensure they’re sourcing from local, sustainable businesses
- Using a social business to supply your catering for meetings and events
- Choosing local, independent venues for work dinners, conferences and meetings
- Stocking vending machines with snacks and drinks from Welsh companies
As well as the economic boost you’ll be giving to local independents, you’ll also be reducing the need for food to be transported as far and stored for as long which saves energy and emissions.
And if you’re also using one of Cardiff’s social businesses you’ll also be supporting the valuable work they’re doing out in the community.
It can be tricky to find local suppliers – networking through Food Cardiff can help – so Food Innovation Wales has created a directory of more than 600 food and drink companies in Wales.
