Social & Sustainable

Foodari is working hard to be a truly sustainable supplier, who our customers can trust to work in an environmentally friendly way wherever possible. We are also ensuring that we make a positive social impact by working with local charities through donations, partnerships and supplying surplus product.

Like most businesses we have more work to do but our approach is to continuously improve, innovate and work differently to become greener, and to be a true force for good in Kent. Here’s a few examples of what we’re doing:

Supply Chain & Food Miles

We prioritise produce that is seasonal and local. This means we keep our food miles, use of fuel, and carbon-heavy imports to a minimum – in fact our nearest supplier (Hares Farm in Chilham) is just three miles away from our farm! We have also invested in route optimising software to ensure that our delivery routes are as short and efficient as possible.

We import a number of key products such as citrus, avocado, melons and pineapples. At certain times of the year we also source produce from Europe to ensure we can consistently offer the main staples when they are not available in Kent or the UK. But no matter where our produce is sourced, we can guarantee full traceability from good growers.

Nature-friendly

We work with growers and producers who have green, wildlife-friendly and sustainable principles too. Here’s some great examples:

Our wonderful apple and strawberry suppliers at Newlands are LEAF-assured (Linking Environment & Farming), working to build robust ecosystems on their farm near Faversham.

Growers supplying to Provenance Potatoes use both field margins and wildflower planting for winter bird food sources and nectar to encourage biodiversity on their farms.

Oakdene, berry-growers extraordinaire, use the Cool Farm Tool to monitor greenhouse gases, water and biodiversity.

The brilliant team at Betts Farm, who supply many of our salad leaves, are also wildlife friendly, including the planting of wildflower meadows for insects and bees, and putting up nesting boxes for birds. They have also invested in solar power and other new technology to improve the energy-efficiency of their operations.

We also have an extensive rewilding programme, including tree planting to offset carbon production, on our land.

Plastic & Recycling

We estimate around 80% of our produce comes to us in re-useable or recyclable boxes and pallets and we’re encouraging our suppliers to help us get this nearer to 100%. We’re really close to being completely plastic-free, where plastic is used we innovate.

Woodlands in Chartham, who supply eggs to us in plastic egg boxes made entirely from recycled plastic bottles retrieved from the sea – eggs-cellent work!

Our cardboard delivery boxes are all made from recycled material. In addition we offer a collection service for all used packaging, this is then baled at our recycling centre at the farm.

We recognise that we create waste and use resources, we aim to be responsible with this use.

This picture is a younger customer being creative with recycling our packaging!

Supporting local causes

We employ around 60 local people and serve customers across the South East. We firmly believe that being part of the community is not just about what we offer commercially, but how we play our part in supporting local causes and charities too.

Our team is proud to work with a number of organisations in Kent. This includes a Christmas Charity Partnership with Porchlight, Kent’s largest charity for homeless and vulnerable people. We also donate produce to The Umbrella Café in Whitstable who are working to reduce isolation and food poverty in the community. We were also proud to support national charity Brogdale National Fruit Collection through our Heritage Apple Box this autumn.

And we also enjoy sharing surplus produce with the wonderful Animal Retreat in High Halden!

Championing worldwide initiatives

We are proud to support the Terra Carta from HRH The Prince of Wales' Sustainable Markets Initiative.

The Terra Carta provides a roadmap to 2030 for businesses to move towards and ambitious and sustainable future; one that wil harness the power of nature combines with the transformative power, innovation and resources of the private sector.

The global business proposition outlines ten areas for action and compromises of nearly 100 actions for business as the basis of a recovery plan that puts Nature, People and Planet at the heart of global value creation.

Renewable energy and solar plans

We recognise that as part of our drive for Net zero we need to develop our usage of renewable energy. We are planning to install a solar scheme that will generate all electricity for our warehouse and office facilities at Howletts Farm.

Each unit of solar power we generate will reduce our carbon footprint by 193g. The estimated CO2 reduction is 17,230 kg per annum.

Waste Food and the circular economy

Our food waste is taken to be fed to adult black soldier flies laying eggs into trays that within a few days hatch into tiny neonates (baby bugs) which we grow onto 10mm long larger larvae on wheat bran. We then pump the food waste smoothie into trays, add the larger larvae and 1 week later we have big fat juicy larvae that our hens go bonkers for!

Are there any pother food businesses bolf enough to feature fly larvae on thier websites?!

Investing in energy efficient fleet

We have recently invested in state-of-the-art new vehicles to distribute all produce. All vehicles are Mercedes Benz 315 Sprinters, they are fitted with the latest engine technology and exhaust purification system, whilst the refrigeration unit is a direct drive unit working directly from a ‘power take off’ from the engine so no additional fuel is used, or emissions generated when the refrigeration unit is in operation. The boxes are also insulated with recycled composite material.

"We want you to be as passionate and as excited about our produce as we are"

Jonathan Parker, Managing Director