About Sunflowers Organic Catering
Our sources
All the ingredients that we use are certified organic. All the meat, eggs and dairy that we use is both organic and free range.
We use local suppliers to minimise food miles, support small businesses, and, since some of our suppliers are within walking distance, reduce our own carbon emissions. These suppliers include:
- The Real Meat Company, Sheffield
- Michael Lee Dairy, Pontefract
- Lembas Vegetarian Wholesalers, Heeley, Sheffield
- Beanies, Crookesmoor, Sheffield
- The Baker's Shop, Walkley, Sheffield
- The Yorkshire Crisp Company
Our environmental ethos
Eating organically has numerous benefits for our environment, in addition to ensuring that our food is both tastier and healthier (on the latter, for example, see research by Universities of Liverpool and Glasgow published in the Journal of Dairy Science in 2006). Organic standards ensure the highest animal welfare, and preclude the use of GM foods at any stage of the food chain. There are no pesticides and insecticides used in organic farming, which is great news to local animal and plant populations. Studies have shown that there are greater numbers and more species of birds, butterflies, beetles, bats and wild flowers on organic farms.
Organic eating benefits the wider planetary environment, too. Studies such as this one support the idea that the production of food organically requires much less input of fossil fuel and fresh water than equivalent non-organic foods. As the same study points out, the most environmentally friendly diet of all is organic vegetarianism, and we are proud that Sunflowers Catering places a great emphasis on its quality vegetarian options.
We design our menus around seasonally available British produce, and, where possible, use locally sourced ingredients (including herbs from our garden!). Where we do use non-British food, we make sure that it has never been transported by air.
We reuse and recycle, offering proper crockery, cutlery and glassware to avoid the need for disposable products. We recycle extensively - including all glass, paper, metals, and many plastics - and compost where possible. We use 'bio uk fuels' (a company that guarantees the use of 100% recycled oil for their biodiesel) for sesame vehicles. And we use Ecover products for all our cleaning to reduce our environmental impact.
