6 Tips on How to DIY You don’t have to work for a sustainable agriculture association to incorporate local, seasonal, and organic food into your meeting or convention. A meeting professional from any type or size of organization can — and should — be able to do it, according to Fred Broadwell, program manager for the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association.
Food With a Face This was the first time that Executive Chef Elhaj Tayouga and his staff dealt directly with farmers. Their contact is usually a middleman, he said, “which is kind of sad.”
“Sourcing from local farmers and local food artisans is the future,” Broadwell said. “It creates a connection between the location of the event and the food and the attendee. It creates a unique event — an event that could not happen anywhere else. That really resonates with people today, as opposed to going to another big city with basically generic food. People are more demanding than that.”
Here are six tips from Broadwell on getting started and making it work:
1 Plan far ahead “If you’re going to propose this, propose it early in the process so that the hotel has time to wrap their mind around it.”
‘TRUTH IN MENU’ Logistically, the Sustainable Agriculture Conference pre- sented some unique challenges for the hotel — including staff training. “All the standard cooking techniques need to change with fresh, organic products,” Tayouga said. “They’re more delicate. Some cook quicker. Most of the natural meat needs a little bit longer time to cook ... and more braising than sautéing or grilling. “It was good training for my staff, and it was fun for us. It
was the first time we did an event like that — dealing with the farmers directly. It gives you a different perspective on the food chain. We’re usually dealing with a middleman, which is kind of sad. You get [the food] off the truck from the distribu- tor and cook it.” The Sheraton also had to handle multiple product deliver-
ies. Instead of one big delivery from a company like Sysco or US Foods, there were 28 separate deliveries representing 67 purveyors, thanks to the services of two local distribu- tors — Leading Green and ECO. “There are [distributors] that can take produce and meats and cheeses from local farms and consolidate it into a single delivery so that we don’t have 100 farmers bringing their pickup trucks to the back gate,... [although] there was some of that,” Broadwell said. “I’m amazed at how many new companies are on the scene that will do small- to medium-sized consolidation of foods. It’s not exactly the way the hotel typically does it, but we work with them to make it as streamlined as possible.” Once the food was delivered, it was kept separate from the
rest of the food in the hotel, and Reid began to take inven- tory. “I went into the coolers and dry stock and made sure
64 PCMA CONVENE MAY 2012
2 Point out the positives “It would be an incredible learning experience for the staff ... and there is a way to make money on it. If the property is going to offer the service, they should be compensated for it.”
3 Get F&B on board “Salespeople may say no because they think it would upset the chef. But chefs and food-and-beverage directors typically enjoy doing this. They enjoy doing something different and using local and seasonal ingredients. You need to bring F&B into the conversation early on.”
4 Hire a coordinator “To do this type of food, someone needs to be paid to handle all the logistics. You could pay someone working for the hotel or convention center, an outside consultant, or a staff person. If you want that higher quality, that experience for your event-goer, you need to spend the money.”
5 Make it easy “Logistics are tricky, but are getting easier all the time. There are companies out there that can take produce and meats and cheeses from local producers and consolidate it into a single delivery. That makes all the difference.”
6 Take it slow “For large associations, I suggest taking one piece of an event and making it local and seasonal. Try doing a reception that’s all seasonal and local introduce it, become familiar with it, and see how it goes.”