Harvest Fine Foods take their social responsibility seriously and work hard to grow sustainable partnerships with those around them. Not only do they support various local charitable organisations such as Fareshare and Westbourne Rotary but they also work closely with local farmers and producers to find the best products for our discerning clients.
Since Harvest started their Home Delivery service at the end of March they have raised nearly £5,000 through donations for Fareshare to support Covid pop up projects across the South of England. Both Harvest and Fareshare would like to say a huge thank you to our customers for making these generous donations when they are placing their home delivery orders. Mandy Holdaway, Warehouse Manager at Fareshare in Southampton said ‘This is truly amazing and means that a lot of our members are getting stock that they either can’t afford or are struggling to get hold of in these difficult times’.
Through these difficult times Harvest Fine Foods have also been supplying many local authorities with care packages enabling them to support their local communities. Harvest Managing Director, Richard Strongman, was recently invited to meet the local MP for Eastleigh and Hedge End, Paul Holmes in conjunction with a joint project with Crestwood Community School in Eastleigh to supply around 700 free school meal packages to people’s homes while children have been unable to attend school. Paul Holmes was ‘really impressed with the quality and quantity of food in the free school meals parcels’.
Harvest has also been supporting Southampton City Catering with around 4000 Free School Meal and Elderly Care Packages. As a not-for-profit school meals provider supporting 46 schools across Southampton, the Covid-19 pandemic and the partial closing of schools has meant they had to quickly adapt and respond to the ever-changing needs of schools, and the communities that they support. They have been providing healthy packed lunches for those onsite and providing grocery boxes for those eligible for Free School Meals. They have also seen a 75% increase in care meals service, delivering meals to the homes of vulnerable and elderly adults across the City. Jessica Clasby-Monk, from Southampton City Catering, said ‘One crucial aspect of our school meals service is to provide for those children who would ordinarily enjoy a Free School Meal with us at lunchtime. To be able to do this, we’ve been really grateful for the quick response and support from Harvest, to ensure that we can supply, per week, approx. 800 healthy and essential grocery boxes for families. Each week has presented different and individual needs for schools, so we’ve been working flexibly to ensure that we can provide communities with reliable, safe and healthy food. We couldn’t do it without the support of everyone at Harvest!’
Harvest have also supported New Forest District Council as well as Portsmouth City Council with their local care packages.
Sourcing fresh local in-season produce means Harvest can really reduce their food miles and ensure that the time it takes to get from the field to the plate can be the next day. That’s why chefs love to use the fresh local produce they supply. This amazing produce is now also available for home delivery at https://harvestfinefoods.co.uk/harvest-home-delivery-service/ where you can create an account and browse the various beautiful fresh products available as well as lots of other household grocery lines. Harvest work with farms such as the New Forest Fruit Company, New Forest Mushrooms and Sopley Salads to name a few and have had recent comments on their Facebook page such as ‘these are the best strawberries I have ever tasted’.
Its not just fresh produce that Harvest strives to buy locally, being a member of Hampshire Fare Harvest meet regularly with their members and local producers to identify new and exciting local products. Recent additions to the portfolio have included Wine from Danebury Wines in Hampshire, Hot Chocolate from Mortimers as well as apple juice from Hill Farm. In the cheese range we have lots of local suppliers, why not take a look at the full range of local supplier here https://harvestfinefoods.co.uk/your-key-ingredients/local-producers-suppliers/
Whether you are a Restaurant, Hotel, Care Home, School or a member of the public looking to access high-quality food get in touch with Harvest at www.harvestfinefoods.co.uk or call 01202 470444 for more information. Why not like them on Facebook to keep up with all the exciting news https://www.facebook.com/harvestfinefood/