The eighth British Food Fortnight that took place from 19th September to 4th October 2009 was the biggest national celebration of the diverse and delicious range of food that Britain produces. More shops, pubs, restaurants, schools and food festivals took part than ever before producing a myriad of events and promotions. Highlights of the event are described below.

British Food Fortnight 2010 takes place 18th September to 3rd October 2010

Highlights

• ‘Buy British’ message reaches millions… this year’s British Food Fortnight reached an unprecedented number of the public. Thousands of events were held with food festivals across Britain including in more than half of the English counties; a national school cooking competition led by the BBC’s Hairy Biker celebrity chefs; a Harvest Swap Shop in St Paul’s Cathedral; ‘Mash of the Day’ menu in Wembley Stadium; foraging walks, food trails and fungi forays in National Trust properties; a People’s Picnic in Brighton; Plot to Plate cooking demonstrations and a drop-in cooking theatre; the world’s biggest bread and butter pudding produced by Hovis specially for the event; Alan Titchmarsh trumpeting the Fortnight on his show; Radio 4’s The Archers featuring a running story on the event; Meet the Farmer events; a ‘Dancing with Dabs’ musical fish procession and Dudley Zoo which served local produce to the giraffes, penguins and sealions proving that animals too can also eat British!


• More British food on menus than ever before... more British food was consumed though the catering sector over the two weeks than ever before with eight of the largest food service organisations, led by ARAMARK, six of the biggest pub groups led by Young’s, all the chef associations, the Youth Hostel Association, Anchor Care Homes and many others all putting British food on the menu. The public sector supported the event en masse: the BBC’s canteen staff donned ‘Love British Food’ t-shirts; major hospitals and school catering services ran special menus; Oxford’s Waste Partnership hosted a series of live cookery demonstrations for the event to encourage people to use up their leftovers and even the Cabinet Office participated! 


• More British promotions in shops than ever before…all the major supermarkets ran special British promotions during British Food Fortnight signifying the greatest support in the history of the event. Hundreds of independent stores flew the Union Jack in the high street with tastings, meet-the-producer events and special offers on British food, led by Budgens official sponsor of the event, who also invited local schools to design British food bunting for their local store to display.


• Young and old participate…schools all over the country tapped into the event’s network of 9,000 chefs who are available to go into class to teach children how to cook. Some schools even had visits from local shops and producers.  There was a huge emphasis on 5 A DAY and also on local food with vegetables grown in school gardens, fresh free-range chicken eggs direct from the school grounds, locally hunted game and produce donated by local suppliers all being incorporated into cooking lessons. Judging is now underway to select the 110 schools that participated in the most imaginative way, all of which are being rewarded with class sets of Kenwood cooking equipment.  Anchor Trust, the biggest provider of Care Homes for the elderly, organised lots of activities for residents, including meals made using recipes from the 1940s. 

What people said about British Food Fortnight 2009

“The number of children eating school meals in Shropshire Primary Schools increased by 20% as a result of the British Food Fortnight menu we ran.”
Bill Campbell, Operations Manager, Shropshire School Meal Service

“350 schools in Kent took part in British Food Fortnight and we’ll definitely be doing so again next year - I would love to see the whole of Kent getting involved, pubs, hotels and hospitals!”
Mark Sleep, Client Services Manager, Kent County Council

“Why are we doing this?  Simple.  British Food Fortnight increases the enjoyment of tasting different foods and increases the income in the staff restaurant by 12%”
Mike Duckett, Catering Services Manager, The Royal Brompton Hospital, London

“So many people turned up to our Budgens British Food Fortnight event that we couldn’t fit them all inside the store!”
Kanna Mahunda, store owner, Budgens, Stoneleigh

“What’s really exciting is that we’ve seen a clear increase in sales as a result of British Food Fortnight.”
Lucy Worrall, Marketing Manager for Warner’s Budgens

“British Food Fortnight was a phenomenal success with Asda's customers, particularly our meat, chilled and seasonal produce offers.”
Paul Dover, Customer Planning Manager, Asda

“British Food Fortnight is an important date in Morrison’s calendar. We found the event to be extremely successful in helping communicate our values."
A spokesperson for Morrisons

“British Food Fortnight’s initiative sending chefs into schools is an invaluable way of teaching the next generation and we love being involved.” 
Dave Myers and Simon King, BBC’s Hairy Bikers celebrity chefs

“The children thoroughly enjoyed British Food Fortnight - helping the chef to cook the food and, of course tasting it”
Tony Phillips, head teacher of Godolphin Primary School who received help from a local chef

“British Food Fortnight really benefited our students and helped promote cooking within the school”
Lynsey Cox, Food Technology Teacher, St. Mary Redcliffe school

“British Food Fortnight was highly successful in Anchor’s care homes - our residents really enjoyed it.”
Richard Herne, Anchor Homes’ Catering Manager

“British Food Fortnight has once again been a hugely successful event for ARAMARK. Thousands of employees in some of Britain's biggest organisations have enjoyed special British menus and schools, colleges and the local farming community have all been involved.”
Victoria Clarke, Marketing Communications Manager, ARAMARK

“YHA was delighted to take part in British Food Fortnight and to stamp its foot on British soil in support of British farmers and producers.  More than 2,000 of our guests tucked into our Great British menu and gave a ringing endorsement to the quality that British food represents.  Cheers to British Food Fortnight from the YHA!”
John Mcgrath & Lauren Pethybridge, Food & Beverage Managers, YHA

“British Food Fortnight has been a great success for Sodexo and once more we are delighted to be associated with it.”
Jeff Brades, Marketing Director for Sodexo

“Our new Best of British recipes were served in more than 1,000 workplaces across the UK during British Food Fortnight and were well received by our customers.”
Nick Vadis, Executive Chef at Compass Group UK & Ireland

“British Food Fortnight definitely had a positive impact for Kent Frozen Foods. We saw a good uplift in the products on promotion throughout the month.”
James Brenchley, Kent Frozen Foods, suppliers to the catering industry

“British Food Fortnight has been a great experience for Young’s.  Customers were very interested and impressed that we were promoting British food.  Such was the response that the British Food Fortnight menu is staying on as an option for all pubs to use as specials, a request that came directly from the pub managers.”
Tara Buffini, Director of Food Development, Young & Co's Brewery PLC

“Yet again British Food Fortnight has proved to be a big winner for us. Not only did it boost sales significantly, but it was the perfect opportunity to show customers that they can enjoy fantastic British produce at reasonable prices in our pubs.”
Sharon Hammond, Marketing Manager, Orchid Group Pubs

“S&N Pub Enterprises fully supports British Food Fortnight.  It offers the chef a chance to shine using local produce which provides positive PR for the pub in its local community.  This year for the first time lessees were able to use our new food website to obtain information on taking part in British Food Fortnight.   50% of those visiting the site visited the British Food Fortnight page.”
Ben Bartlett, Head of Food Development, S&N Pub Enterprises

“It was a great idea for The Great Inns of Britain to take part in British Food Fortnight.  We have had a wonderful response to our seasonal menus during the event.” Simon Rhatigan, Feversham Arms Hotel, North Yorkshire on behalf of Great Inns of Britain