INCREASE YOUR PURCHASING POWER Social enterprise catering partnerships from Unity Kitchen Quality food and drink Jobs and apprenticeships for people with disabilities Partnership hospitality opportunities Ethical and sustainable business www.unitykitchen.co.uk
UNITY KITCHEN: MUCH MORE THAN GOOD FOOD Expert catering partners with 25 years experience Since 1985, when our pioneering, food-loving social entrepreneurs opened the forerunner to Unity Kitchen in Camden, we ve built a network of successful cafes and catering operations under the Unity Kitchen and Unity Coffee brands. Managed by our parent company, the Camden Society, today we run outlets across London and Oxfordshire, our largest catering for up to 500 people every day at the London Bridge offices of Southwark Council. We ve certainly grown, but our principles have remained the same ~ serving delicious and nutritious food, reinvesting every pound of profit and creating jobs for the people most marginalised in local communities. Partnerships with extra benefits None of this growth would be possible without partnerships. Working with London councils, community organisations and cultural partners like the Royal Artillery Museum, we have developed joint venture cafes in community resource centres, libraries, civic centres and heritage spaces. All create multiple benefits far beyond making and serving quality food and drink including: Creating jobs and apprenticeships for local people with disabilities Serving fresh, high quality, affordable food for local communities Training communities in healthy cooking and eating, equipping young people with cookery skills that will last a lifetime Boosting the income streams of partner organisations, running joint promotions and venue hire packages together Unity Kitchen replaced our in-house cafe offering. The difference has been amazing. We now have a well organised, impressive cafe that enhances our visitor experience while offering training to people with disabilities in the local community. Feedback from visitors is very positive, particularly highlighting the excellent food and the friendly service. Supporting local producers and retailers, and helping to mainstream Fairtrade and other ethical purchasing practices Helping to create vibrant and welcoming community spaces that encourage engagement, activity and fun Jenny Branscombe, Finance / Operations Director, Royal Artillery Museums Limited 2 3
DELICIOUS AND NUTRITIOUS FOOD AND DRINK SLOW OR ON THE GO Bursting with high quality ingredients, our menus showcase delicious ways to enjoy fresh, seasonal produce. From crisp Mediterranean salads to hearty winter soups, we keep dishes simple, natural and wholesome for a healthy breakfast or leisurely lunch. And, with a selection of chilled sandwiches, seasonal boxed salads and nutritious snacks all packaged fresh to take away, we cater for busy people who like to grab and go too. FAIRTRADE AND ORGANIC AS STANDARD Keeping recipes as natural as possible and using organic produce whenever we can, our professional chefs prepare and bake most menu items fresh for the day of sale. Organic, fairtrade drinks are available in every Unity Kitchen outlet and include coffees, teas, herbal infusions, smoothies and pure juices. With a focus on simplicity, the quality of our ingredients really shines through. It also supports our apprentices to build confidence in their work quickly. And, in purchasing seasonal produce, we keep to a strict purchasing policy ~ making it affordable for people to eat well, but also supporting small, local suppliers. EVENTS CATERING CUSTOMISED TO YOUR NEEDS Besides a portfolio of cafes, Unity Kitchen has extensive event catering experience. We manage catering every week for weddings, celebrations and corporate presentations. Recent events include an awards dinner with the Duke of Edinburgh, a press meeting for Nick Clegg MP, the annual Keats House festival and a book launch at the London Metropolitan Archives. With an organic office catering service as standard, we also supply fresh food to local businesses and organisations across London each week. Clients include Sir Robert McAlpine and London Youth. Whether it s a working lunch or a wedding for 200, our service includes personalised menus and catering for specific dietary requirements and food intolerances. With professional chefs always available to give advice, we work with clients to create customised menus to suit any event. Our mouth-watering canapés, sandwich selections, and speciality cakes are all packaged and inspected ~ ensuring the highest quality standards before direct-todoor delivery. have used Unity Kitchen for all my functions. They have always delivered beyond my requests in both quality, pricepoint and service and have only ever received good feedback. t is also pleasing to know it is going to help a charity, rather than shareholders profits. Michael Cleere, Community Cohesion Co-ordinator, London Borough of Southwark 4 5
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE: REINVESTING PROFIT FOR COMMUNITY BENEFIT BENEFITS BEYOND GOOD FOOD AND DRINK As a social enterprise, Unity Kitchen helps partners meet multiple priorities, increasing purchasing power, adding value and benefiting local communities. Besides making good food affordable for local people, one of our key aims is to generate profit to support job creation and training opportunities for people with disabilities. Our apprenticeship scheme, UnityWorks, has supported hundreds of people with disabilities to launch careers in the catering and hospitality sector. Our cookery demonstrations and healthy eating workshops for local communities support health promotion and community cohesion strategies. The goodness continues ~ our commitment to sustainability means we operate waste reduction and ethical purchasing practices to reduce our environmental impacts. UNITYWORKS: APPRENTICESHIPS IN CATERING AND HOSPITALITY UnityWorks is a major part of our catering businesses. Run in partnership with Westminster Kingsway College, the scheme is accredited by the National Apprenticeship Service. Through workbased training, UnityWorks aims to produce confident, competent apprentices who, at the end of their formal training, are ready to enter jobs either with us or with other employers. With the Camden Society s 25 years experience of training and employment programmes we offer each apprentice: Practical work experience across a broad range of cafe and hospitality operations including: front of house, barista skills, food preparation, cookery and bakery NVQ Level 1 and 2 qualifications in food preparation, cookery and customer service Accredited training in barista skills, food hygiene, first aid and health and safety Ongoing career planning support from the Camden Society s specialist employment advisors On graduating from the UnityWorks training programme, all apprentices are ready to apply for jobs within the catering and hospitality sector. 6 7
A COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY AND QUALITY SERIOUS ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY GUARANTEED QUALITY We ve spent a lot of time designing a business that delights everyone who s connected to it ~ customers, apprentices, partners and suppliers. So, we re determined to continue to get it right, to keep on meeting and exceeding customer expectations. All our cafes work hard to reduce their impact on the environment. n a nutshell, we love local, support Fairtrade and take care not to waste. With a commitment to responsible purchasing, wherever possible we buy from small, independent suppliers. All our fish meets Marine Stewardship Council standards, while we work hard to identify our meat suppliers and demand positive animal husbandry. Avoiding air freight and industrial farming is important to us too, and we buy organic whenever we can. For us, ethical purchasing goes beyond food and drink. Most Unity Kitchen disposables are 100% compostable and our bottled water is carbon neutral. Our cafe interior fit-outs use natural materials wherever possible and our marketing materials are printed on paper from responsible sources. Offering different portion sizes for differing appetites, we also create less food waste. Our overall promise to reduce, reuse and recycle applies to all our branches, and we make food composting to reduce waste a priority. Unity Kitchen is a member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association. To do this, we continually monitor all parts of our business with a stringent audit, reporting and inspection system. We fully comply with the Food Standards Agency HACCP principles and the Food Safety Regulations 2006. All our premises are registered with local environmental health departments and our mystery shoppers make regular visits. t is this commitment to quality and safety that has seen our branches gain four or five stars in the Scores on the Doors scheme. Our training is also externally accredited by many industry bodies that demand we maintain high standards for membership of their schemes. We hold accreditation from the National Apprenticeship Service, City & Guilds, the Department for Work and Pensions and the London Open College Network. We are also holders of nvestors in People and Positive About Disabled People status. 6 C Statistics courtesy of Vegware Ltd. IN 2011, by using compostable disposables, Unity Kitchen saved: t t t 1.4 TONNES OF CARBON 1.7 TONNES OF VIRGIN MATERIAL 3.1 TONNES OF FOOD PACKAGING FROM GOING TO LANDFILL 8 9
The Camden Society is a very well-established organisation that contributes professionalism, quality, and passion to a partnership. Their ability to flexibly focus on community benefit is extremely beneficial when trying to harness resources to match real community needs. Antonio Rizzo, Service Manager, London Borough of Lewisham PARTNERSHIPS: BENEFITS FAR BEYOND GOOD FOOD PARTNERSHIPS THAT BENEFIT EVERYONE Whatever your organisation and needs, the Camden Society s Unity Kitchen model offers partners opportunities to increase revenue, participation and profile within your local community. Our partnership agreements are individually tailored: we ll work with you to design a variation that suits your organisation and community. From the start we offer professional knowledge and experience to build a successful business together. Our managers and professional chefs are available to plan kitchens that function efficiently as well as front of house interiors that are welcoming, comfortable and inspired. We work with partners to offer fully inclusive events packages that combine catering with venue bookings, equipment hire and a fine dining service. To benefit from joint marketing, we can design mutually beneficial offers together, for example gym sessions bundled with a salad and smoothie, or lunch packages for older people signing up to yoga classes. Our free recipe cards to take home encourage healthy eating amongst your customers, while we can work with you to promote healthy living ~ a key output for many funders and commissioners. From food tasting sessions to cookery demonstrations, from one-off training events such as Cooking on a budget to accredited food hygiene training for local people, we ll work with you to use food to help maximise community involvement, social inclusion and healthy lifestyles. With specific expertise in working with local communities, we develop loyal customer bases and work effectively with people who are usually excluded. Partnerships with us allow you to harness this softer approach and expertise ~ a key difference to our purely commercial competitors. To discuss partnership opportunities with Unity Kitchen, please contact the Social Enterprise Manager at the Camden Society on 020 7485 8177 or email info@unitykitchen.co.uk www.unitykitchen.co.uk 10 11
CONTACT US UNITY KITCHEN 60 Holmes Road London NW5 3AQ T: 020 7485 8177 E: info@unitykitchen.co.uk www.unitykitchen.co.uk DESIGN BY CASSBINDER www.cassbinder.com PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBIN ROBERTSON rrobertson@demon.co.uk