Lexington hosted a conference last week for over 250 of its employees where the teams discussed the exciting projects they are working on with charities and social enterprises including, Change Please, Heads Together, Trees for Cities, Redemption Roasters and Fat Macy’s.
The event brought the Lexington Reception Services, Lexington Catering and Lexington Independent Schools together to recognise amazing talent, celebrate success, and hear from leading experts about some of the practical things businesses can do to protect the environment and community.
– The team bought reupholstered furniture made by prisoners from RoughStuff – this included a stand and large table, which the team used to serve food. These will be used at future events.
– Alicia Lawson, Director of food waste condiment brand, Rubies in the Rubble, making delicious condiments from surplus ingredients that would otherwise go to waste.
– Jamie Crummie, Director of food waste app, Too Good to Go.
– Cemal Ezel, Founder and CEO, Change Please award-winning coffee social enterprise helping the homeless off the streets.
-DDP, renowned for supplying the highest quality fresh fruit and vegetables from the UK, was at the event talking about the beauty of wonky fruit and veg.
Julia Edmonds, Managing Director of Lexington, talked about the Lexington values and strength of the Lexington brand. The team also got to see a sneak preview of the new Lexington brand, which is going to be launched later this year.
The Lexington Reception Services (LRS) talked about the LRS Green Force campaign and how teams are working with clients and building management to raise awareness about how we can all reduce our impact on the environment.
During the conference Rob Kirby, Chef Director at Lexington, chaired a panel discussion, with Alicia Lawson, Director of food waste condiment brand, Rubies in the Rubble, Jamie Crummie, Director of food waste app, Too Good to Go, and TRASHED Ambassador and Head Chef at Lexington, Tom Bradly.
The panel talked about ways we can use technology to reduce food waste and the fact food waste is something everyone can get behind and how we all have a role to play.
With Lexington serving over 32,000 meals a day Tom urged the team to be proactive when thinking about food waste. He said he would like to see the focus on food waste become compulsory, like allergens: “The issue is huge. If we don’t do enough to reduce food waste we will start to destroy the industry we love.”
Jamie said, “When it comes to retail and food waste date labelling is an issue. We are already seeing some industries going above and beyond, with some removing the sell by date from their products. But more needs to be done. We need to fall in love with food again – respect food and it will respect you.”
