Blogs

Bringing the festival feeling to the workplace

Great food, live music, global flavours and plenty of reasons to step away from the desk, one of our sites was recently transformed for a food festival that brought a real sense of fun and energy to the working day.

Created to bring people together and showcase the variety and creativity of our food, the festival gave everyone the chance to try something different, catch up with colleagues and simply enjoy spending time together.

And it certainly created a buzz.

A day to enjoy

Food stations were busy throughout the day, serving freshly prepared dishes inspired by flavours from around the world.

Customers embraced the opportunity to explore the different food on offer, and the atmosphere quickly spread across the workplace. People tried dishes they might not usually choose and spent time catching up with colleagues away from their desks.

The feedback afterwards was brilliant, with customers commenting on the atmosphere, variety of food and energy of the day.

Celebrating our chefs

One of the things that made the festival particularly special was bringing together some of the fantastic culinary talent from across our business.

Chefs from across the business joined us for the day to share their specialities, bringing even more variety to the festival. Chris served up Mexican dishes, while Hamid showcased Moroccan flavours, giving customers the chance to discover different cuisines and enjoy food from some of our talented chefs.

Sunil also got everyone into the festival spirit, starting the day preparing a fresh poke bar before swapping his chef whites for the DJ decks.

Food and music proved to be a pretty good combination!

Sharing the stories behind our food

The festival wasn’t only about what was on the plate. It was also an opportunity to share some of the stories behind our food and introduce customers to suppliers making a positive difference.

Breadwinners joined us for the day, giving customers the chance to discover more about the social enterprise and its work supporting young refugees and people seeking asylum through employment, training and mentoring.

Bringing our suppliers into the workplace in this way helps make the connection between the food we serve and the people and purpose behind it.

Food that makes a difference

There was another reason to celebrate too. The festival raised an incredible £1,795 for our Charity of the Year.

For us, that’s what makes days like this so worthwhile. Yes, they’re about serving brilliant food and creating something a little different, but they’re also about bringing people together, supporting wellbeing, celebrating our teams and suppliers, and creating a positive impact beyond the workplace.

A busy workplace, fantastic food, talented chefs, music, laughter and money raised for a brilliant cause – all the ingredients for a pretty special day.