Food Glorious Food Launch, Celebrating Colleagues & Fairtrade 25

Food Glorious Food

On Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending the latest launch of ‘Food Glorious Food’ at the Cotswolds Distillery in Shipston-on-Stour. The competition which is now into its 2nd year gives food and drink producers across the Cotswolds the opportunity to showcase their local produce, win £10,000 for their business and have pride of place on our shelves.

The competition is important as it allows our local communities to be involved in developing ethically sourced lines that will form part of our award-winning Best of Our Counties range. It also gives local entrepreneurs the help and support they need to get off their products ground and launch them to a much wider audience.

This year the Co-op is 175 years old. One of their original aims of the Rochdale pioneers was to create pure and affordable food for all and Food Glorious Food keeps that tradition alive.

Last year the standard was so high that it proved a very difficult competition to judge. The overall winner then was the ‘Foggy Pastries’ from Deborah Flint at Cinderhill Farm.

Deborah symbolises that it is just not about a brilliant product but also the provenance and the local community behind it. Cinderhill Farm employs local people in the Forest of Dean who would otherwise struggle to find employment, so the competition helps not just Deborah but the whole local community.

The competition to find this year’s Food Glorious Food winner is now open so if you do know of anyone who may be interested in taking part please don’t hesitate to encourage them to register here.

Colleague Forum

Yesterday I spoke at our Colleague Forum which took place at the Chateau Impney, Droitwich.

In my presentation, I gave updates on the economy, membership and Member First including how as a Society we are making it less complex for colleagues and more rewarding for members.

In the question and answer session afterwards, it was good hear from so many motivated and dedicated colleagues. Meeting some of them in person it never fails to impress me how professional and hardworking our colleagues are.

This is no better illustrated than the colleagues who were shortlisted for The Team Midcounties Awards. I would like to thank all the nominees and add my congratulations to the overall winner Carly Burke, Deputy Nursery Manager from Co-operative Childcare Newbiggin Nursery, Newcastle.

Team Midcounties Award winner Carly Burke (centre) with Alistair Rowland, Chief Retail Officer Specialist Businesses and Clare Moore, Chief HR Officer

Carly demonstrated quick thinking in dealing with a distressed parent who had come into their nursery and after sitting down and comforting her, ensured the individual was in a safe environment with family support in the run-up to Christmas.

This year provided some remarkable stories of how our colleagues are living our DOES values and championing our co-operative way of working which makes me proud to be your Chief Executive.

Energy update

I wanted to update you on what we are doing to support our Energy colleagues in implementing the agreement with Octopus. We are working with them to help colleagues to look at the long-term opportunities with Octopus once we have completed the systems transfers later this year.

We have now put in place a Colleague Support Team to provide as much support as possible to all our affected Energy colleagues at our Walsall, Warwick, Ipswich, Hatherton Road and Bloxwich sites during the transition period.

The support has included holding open days with local employers, providing in-house training on job hunting, working with local authorities, trade bodies and recruitment agencies to identify new job opportunities and providing ongoing welfare support.

The team have also put on workshops for CV writing, drop-in sessions on everything from LinkedIn to interview techniques and other bespoke training.

It is important that this work continues and I’m sure you will join with me in giving as much support to our Energy Colleagues as possible during the transition. 

Fairtrade 25

October 2019 marks the 25th anniversary of the Fairtrade Mark, providing us with the opportunity to showcase our support for Fairtrade products while encouraging more people to find out what the mark stands for.

To celebrate we have a range of activities taking place across our Society during the month.  These include community celebration events across selected Regional Communities, school education sessions, Fairtrade Cooking demonstrations and social media campaigns to encourage people to swap a non-Fairtrade product for a Fairtrade one across our Food Stores. 

Raising awareness of the Fairtrade Mark will also be the theme at our October Half Yearly Meetings where we will be producing a Fairtrade exhibition timeline and fun quizzes for members to complete.  

For those interested in the history of Fairtrade there is a very good Guardian on it you can read by clicking here.

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