Food Supplier Spotlight: Dartmouth Foods

We wanted to design a bespoke product for FareShare South West that catered for their partners without compromising taste.

Greg Choulerton, Managing Director at Dartmouth Foods

Just a short drive from our Plymouth warehouse, you’ll find Dartmouth Foods. Owned and run by the same family since 2000, Dartmouth Foods is one of the food industry’s leading cooked meat suppliers.

For the small and dedicated team, social responsibility and community support is at the heart of what they do. In August 2021, Dartmouth Foods joined forces with FareShare South West to help us fight food poverty and give more people access to good food.

Typically, food suppliers will donate their surplus food to FareShare South West – diverting good quality, in-date food that would otherwise have gone to landfill for reasons such as overproduction, packaging changes or end of line stock.

The Dartmouth Foods model is slightly different. Their efficient, streamlined production methods means they have little surplus to give. Instead, the team design and create bespoke dishes for FareShare South West that change with the season. This year, we’ve seen delicious turkey casserole with added vegetables, soon to be replaced with full of flavour chicken soup. So far, Dartmouth Foods has donated more than 10 tonnes of food – that’s enough for a staggering 22,000 meals – that has reached an amazing 175 schools, community groups and charities.

Polly is the Services Assistant at One25, one of the 400 charities that receive weekly deliveries of food from FareShare South West. She told us:

“We have used the turkey stew supplied by FareShare South West for all sorts of different meals. One of our favourites was Turkey Pie – a mix of cottage pie and shepherd’s pie which we served with potato dauphinoise on top!”

For the team at Dartmouth Foods, it was essential that the recipe was right for the people we support. Managing Director, Greg explained:

“It was important for us to adjust our chicken soup recipe to fit with the needs of the charities we supplied to. So we did some food tasting sessions to make sure that we got it just right.”

And they haven’t stopped there! To do more to tackle food waste and end hunger, once a week, a different member of the Dartmouth Foods team heads to our Plymouth warehouse to volunteer their time to pick and pack food deliveries, drive vans and spread the word.

“We wanted to go that extra step for our partnership and that is where our desire to volunteer came in. Every Friday afternoon, one of us at Dartmouth Foods volunteers at the Plymouth depot – picking and sorting different foods. We’ve had great fun!”