The eleventh cohort of Love British Food’s ‘change-makers’ visited Madresfield Estate in Worcestershire for an on-farm training day, designed to influence procurement frameworks and strengthen relationships between British farming and public sector caterers.

Leading industry representatives from the NHS, school food and the wider food and farming sector including Public Sector Catering Alliance (PSCA) chair Anita Brown and Neil Porter, director of The School Food People, came together to explore how British produce can play a greater role in creating healthy, sustainable and resilient food systems.

An introduction from Lucy Chenevix-Trench, the 28th generation of her family to live at Madresfield, explained how the Estate is working closely with nature by taking a long-term view of nurturing its soils.

She emphasised the wider role farming can play, describing the ambition for British agriculture to be a force for good for ‘the nation’s economy’, ‘our collective health’ and ‘the environment’.

The farm walk – guided by farm manager, Tim Hassell and stockman, Mike Lane – gave first-hand insight into how the Estate’s regenerative practices are enhancing its resilience to increasingly variable weather while producing high-quality beef, lamb and pork from slow-growing British heritage breeds.

After visiting the onsite butchery unit led by John Hearn, attendees participated in a working-lunch discussion about the opportunities to drive positive change in the sector.

Love British Food founder and CEO Alexia Robinson described how the change-makers had been “deeply inspired” by Madresfield’s approach.  

Alexia Robinson said: “What made the day such a success was seeing genuinely useful conversations turn into commitments to act. Attendees left saying they would ask their suppliers much more about where their food comes from and how it is produced, NHS teams are looking at how they can influence tendering, and there is a real appetite to find ways of putting British sourcing more firmly into procurement frameworks.

“John the butcher’s advice to focus on the quality of the meat rather than simply the price resonated enormously. That gets to the heart of what these visits are about – encouraging people to look at the true value of the food they buy.

“With 224 change-makers now having taken part in our farm visits, we are building a network of people with the knowledge, confidence and enthusiasm to make that change happen.”

Neil Porter, director of The School Food People, highlighted the importance of breaking down barriers that can prevent British produce from moving through procurement systems, while Anita Brown, chair of the Public Sector Catering Alliance, identified the opportunity to “embed British sourcing into frameworks”.

The visit will also help shape a cross-industry roundtable later this year bringing farming and food service representatives together to explore some of the systemic barriers to sourcing more British produce.

Topics identified by delegates include building stronger long-term supplier relationships; examining misconceptions around beef and carbon; using dynamic purchasing systems to improve accessibility for suppliers; and understanding the role sustainability should play in public sector procurement.

The strongest measure of the day’s success came in what change-makers took back to their respective workplaces.

Joanne Fitzgerald, Deputy General Manager Hotel Services at NHS Northampton, reflected on the impact the visit had on her team, saying; “My team came back absolutely passionate, energised and full of ideas.”

Love British Food’s on-farm training programme will continue to connect public sector caterers with British farmers and producers, find out more about the programme here: Farm Visits for Caterers