Coop Party and Countryfile Live

Hi everyone,

This week has been particularly fast paced and I’d like to share some of my personal highlights with you. Starting with a fantastic day at Coop House to celebrate Ben’s retirement. His knowledge and years of experience brought the Society to where it is today and it can’t be denied, he definitely left in style.

Meeting with Claire McCarthy, General Secretary of the Coop Party

Next up, a meeting with Claire McCarthy, General Secretary of The Co-operative Party. Claire and the party work to ensure co-operatives have a political voice and make the case for co-operative ideas in our economy and wider society. We discussed our future, working together as mutual organisations and our current agenda for achieving food awareness and transparency in education.

Countryfile Live

Friday brought me to the spectacular grounds of Oxfordshire's Blenheim Palace for the annual Countryfile Live event – a major highlight of my week and for Midcounties. Not only was it a first reveal of our new Coop Midcounties brand, we promoted our Best of Our Counties products with local suppliers set up in our very own Coop Midcounties arena. We also took the opportunity to showcase our partnership with Happerley, where we were joined by TV star, Adam Henson.  

Adam and I share a passion for increasing education and awareness of food manufacturing and agriculture. We want consumers to be able to make informed decisions based on the provenance of their food. We are also keen to highlight the importance of agriculture and its place on the school curriculum. A GCSE course in agriculture would provide a larger pool of young, educated and skilled workers that would benefit the industry. Take a look at the short clip below to see more about what we discussed and our plans to work together in the future.

If you’ve scrolled ahead through the photos you may think I spent the day eating and drinking, however, for me, this event was about more than just great food, it was about working towards a transparent food industry and helping our consumers understand where the ingredients in their food and drink are from, which is exactly why we have partnered with Happerley.

Our Board and guests were also in attendance and we had a guided tour of Adam Henson’s farm followed by a delicious Best of Our Counties lunch. Their verdict of the day: ‘brilliant for showcasing what Midcounties is all about’.

Adam and I are both Board members of Happerley, and Midcounties are leading the way as the first retailer to support this project and publish our supply ingredient chain. We’ve made this mandatory across our Best of Our Counties range to deliver the truth of our ingredients, from farmer to consumer.

Not only are we leading the way in the food industry but our Childcare group are also pioneering. They are working towards becoming the first childcare provider to carry the Happerley accreditation to provide food supply chain transparency for parents and children. This partnership truly showcases our ‘Co-operative Difference’ and the responsibility that we are taking to educate the youngest of children, and producing ‘feedmetruth’ menus for our nurseries, which means that we will be able to track every pea from farm to plate!

One of our Little Pioneers, Charlie, who represents cooperation, welcomed families and showed children where they could engage in arts and crafts and visit the growing area to find out where vegetables come from.

It was a brilliant event and thank you to all of our suppliers and colleagues who worked tirelessly in extreme heat to display some of the best of Midcounties.

A special mention and congratulations to Charlotte, from The Cotswold School, Bourton-on-the-Water, for winning the Create and Cook Competition and for your sensational cooking demonstration, my wife tried it and said it was truly delicious!

That’s it from me for this blog, I hope you’ve found it insightful. I’d love to hear all of your thoughts on food education and supply chain transparency in the industry, so why not join in the conversation with me, it’s easy, just sign-in and leave your comments below.