Crew and artist catering specialist Eat to the Beat delivered lunch for the Festival Vision:2025 Conference delegates. With more than 70 festivals signed up to the Vision:2025 pledge, this was another opportunity to bring event organisers that are committed to taking action on climate change together with suppliers providing innovative products and services.
The Conference is took place at The Showman’s Show, Newbury Showground and Eat to the Beat showcased sustainably sourced food exclusively for Vision:2025 members.
The menu featured a delicious range of vegan and vegetarian dishes with locally sourced and sustainable ingredients including chickpea falafel, sweet potato crostini, Tolhurst potato nests and filo baked fresh figs and goats cheese canapes along with spiced coconut curry, farmers market rigatoni, Vietnamese vegan salad pot and a poke style salad served in bowls.
In addition, Mary Shelley-Smith, Eat to the Beat’s global operations director joined the Food for Thought session at the Conference as it took a look at food waste, zero packaging and food provenance whilst sharing best practice from the past season. The panel also included: Mark Laurie, Director of NCASS and co-founder of pioneering festival food waste salvage project Eighth Plate; Bev and Sarah Milner-Simonds sharing their experience of implementing sustainability initiatives at eat:Festivals; Catherine Conway, founder and director of Unpackaged, who launched the UK’s first festival reusable plate deposit return scheme; Chris Johnson talking about Shambala Festival’s award-winning food provenance policy and their decision to go meat and fish free and Ollie Greenhalgh, founder of RaviOllie, giving a food trader’s perspective on overcoming the challenges of implementing sustainable practices.
Commenting on Eat to the Beat’s decision to support the Festival Vision:2025 Conference, global operations director, Mary Shelley-Smith said: “We’re thrilled to be lending our support to the Vision:2025 Conference and delivering the delegate lunch. Delivering sustainable events is now a key consideration for many of our clients and completely in step with our company ethos. We’ve had a keen eye on reducing our carbon footprint for several years now; we’ll utilise crockery wherever we can, use compostable and recyclable disposals when we must and keep single use plastic to an absolute minimum. When it comes to our food then we check the provenance and look to source as much locally as we can. We’re also featuring more and more vegan and vegetarian dishes on our menus.”
Commenting on Eat to the Beat’s support for the Conference, Chris Johnson, chair of Powerful Thinking said: “It’s fantastic to have Eat to the Beat on board with Vision:2025, providing lunch for delegates. Their industry reputation for quality food and proven commitment to sustainability makes them a perfect partner.”
