NATURALLY D&G TO HIGHLIGHT FOOD PROVENANCE

Across our region, DGFirst provides high quality food with produce sourced from local suppliers wherever possible. This shows that our Council is committed to our local food and drink industry.

The Council’s DGFirst provides catering for schools, meals on wheels, leisure centres, and functions. Each year, DGFirst produces around 2 million school meals, more than 22,000 meals on wheels, and caters for over 60,000 people attending events, as diverse as royal banquets, informal barbeques, and private functions.

We live in one of the most beautiful areas in Scotland, with our landscape influencing our culture and the way we live. Agriculture accounts for 69% of our land use. We produce an impressive range of high quality food, with local specialities including seafood, cheese, beef and lamb.

Provenance is all about the origin of what we eat and drink and research shows that this is important to the public.

As part of our marketing strategy to promote all aspects of food provided by our Council, including school meals, the Council has developed and is introducing a Naturally D&G provenance brand.

Dumfries and Galloway Council is the first local authority in Council to develop a provenance brand. It will highlight our area, our Council, services, and suppliers, the provenance of our food, and result in reduced food miles.

The Naturally D&G brand means that consumers can be sure that:
• Our meals are freshly prepared with seasonal ingredients
• Our eggs are from free-range hens and our meat is from animals farmed to British welfare standards
• We don’t serve any endangered fish
• Our menu is free from undesirable additives and GM ingredients

The Naturally D&G brand will explain where the food we serve comes from and the importance of buying quality produce from and the importance of buying quality produce from local suppliers. In Dumfries and Galloway, we:
• Get milk supplied from local dairies
• Source all our meat from UK farms
• Buy Scottish-produced fruit and vegetables when in season and available
• Buy only free-range eggs from local suppliers

Councillor Archie Dryburgh, chairman of DGFirst Management Committee, said, “Building the local economy and providing the best start in life for all our children are priorities for our Council. The Naturally D&G brand fits well with these priorities. We believe that it’s important that we work with local suppliers to provide the best quality food product that we can for a wide range of customers, starting with our school pupils.”