Bringing the Garden of England to your Doorstep

At last, a company that has proved that there is more to life and good food than supermarkets. Sadly for most of the country, we are too far away!

Foodari Direct was started by the present Managing Director, Jonathan Parker, when he found to his dismay that it was difficult, if not impossible to purchase high quality locally grown and raised produce down in the south-east of England. Initially he started two websites – Food for Kent and Food for London – as two source of locally produced high quality food. Demand quickly grew and so Foodari – Food safari – was born!

Today, the company, based in Aldington, near Ashford, Kent, has a strongly growing business, sourcing high quality food from Kent (wherever possible) and supplying it to restaurants, offices, schools, nurseries and now homes across London and the South-East.

Laura Audsley proudly explains, “We are based upon a working farm where we have our own chickens and we have pigs that provide a means of waste disposal, as well as providing high quality meat! We do operate a 100% waste free strategy with everything being recycled. We buy everything where possible from Kentish producers.

“If you look at some of our products, in our bakery range, for example, all our biscuits, cakes and nibbles are baked to order on the evening before you receive them. Our bread is from a local baker while our cheese comes from across Kent and Sussex, our eggs are free range from Bank Farm and our milk and cream from Hinxden Dairy. Our fish comes from Andy Cook at Griggs of Hythe – the fish tastes amazing and is all sustainably caught so you have Dover sole, Whitstable oysters, local cockles and a wide selection of shellfish. Our beef, lamb, pork and poultry all come from animals raised in Kent.

“All of our fruit and vegetables are locally grown, indeed our asparagus is harvested and can be in our customer’s kitchens within four hours – you can’t get much fresher than that! Basically the only time that the fruit and vegetables are not locally grown is either in times of severe bad weather or for crops such as oranges which are imported but never air freighted.”

The company is very environmentally conscious. The vans that make the deliveries will divert on the way back to collect fresh produce from the suppliers. Foodari are continually looking at ways in which they can further reduce the packaging without compromising on the quality of the food. For example, the cool boxes have been replaced with cool bags, which use 90% less packaging and still keep the food cold. These, like the cardboard boxes, can be returned, reused or recycled.

Looking at what Foodari does and the quality of its food and its service only goes to make me very envious that this service is not more widely available across the country!

It is something that is extremely worthwhile in terms of reducing imports, strengthening our own farming industry, reducing the carbon footprint of what we eat and, lastly but not least giving us all, high quality FRESH, chemical-free food at competitive prices – Who will be next?

For further information please telephone 01233 721628 or visit http://www.foodaridirect.co.uk/