Aligning with the Client’s Sustainability Mission

The Guckenheimer food services team wanted to better align with our client and its employees’ focus on sustainability. They did this through the development of an on-site garden on the client’s campus property. The garden and its locally grown produce offered a two-fold solution: an environmentally friendly food source and a healthier produce solution.

Per Daniel Vercher, Executive Chef at Guckenheimer, “We use all of the plant, from root to stem, in our cooking in our mission to create a sustainable solution for our own team and the client.”

From waste to produce solution

Our team started the garden by using the root trimmings and peels from produce to create a compost. Every year, they plant produce based on the season and what the chef has in mind for future menu creations.

Over the next two years following the initial development in 2018, the team designed and built two seasonal gardens that now produce a wide variety of produce and herbs from cucumbers to potatoes, romaine, celery, carrots, peppers, arugula, radish, basil and more. In addition to being able to enjoy the seasonal, organic produce in the café, the client’s employees can also purchase produce and dry herbs to help avoid oversupply and waste.

The garden’s homegrown benefits

Beyond the food supply, the Guckenheimer garden provided added educational and cost-saving benefits. The client’s employees enjoy cooking classes focused on vegetable cookery and hosted in the garden itself. The café team also welcomed culinary students and client guests to tour the gardens to showcase the partnership between the two companies and the joint focus on sustainability. This sustainable solution saved the team $5,000 per year in produce purchases. The client reinvested those savings in the food program and purchased honeybees for the campus. The café team and the client work together to offer organic honey for the food program and employees to purchase.

In addition to the cost savings, the team has received an overwhelmingly positive response from the client and its employees.

One employee said, “I have worked for many corporate accounts and never have I seen such an amazing organic garden that offers so many benefits to the on-site employees. The program even allows us to take vegetables home and cook them for our family, extending the curated experience outside of work.”