Inside Foodbuy PT9: The World of Sustainability and Reopening with Fiona Camp

7 July 2021

The future is looking somewhat brighter across all sectors and as we all take a deep breath in the first taste of freedom, many businesses are now wondering how to navigate through the COVID-19 debris, to welcome back students and customers and to continue to support hospital patients and care home residents.

So, how can they best achieve optimal results in the return to ‘normal’?

We caught up with our Senior Client Lead, Fiona Camp, to provide insight into how the Foodbuy team have been supporting clients across sectors to emerge and thrive in the post-COVID. 

1. Tell us about your role at Foodbuy

“Well, as the Senior Client Lead at Foodbuy, I look after Travel, Healthcare and Education. My clients range from colleges and universities, residential, nursing and care homes as well as various travel solutions.

My core role is to ensure that we continually review our clients’ strategies to meet the demands of the ever-changing climatical and economical climate.

We’re always looking at sourcing product switches to ensure that we offer our clients the right products from the right supplier at best value. To make sure this happens, all our food procurement activity follows an award-winning framework with clear owners, activities, triggers and checks.”

2. What do you think makes Foodbuy different?

“For me, it’s the scope of our supply chain that sets us apart in our market. We’re more than just food. Everything you need to run a business can be purchased at Foodbuy from food and beverages to non-food items like PPE and pest control – which has been a huge asset for clients throughout the pandemic!

Through our network of trusted food and non-food suppliers, we’re able to source the highest quality products at the best market value to meet our client requirements.

Our market-leading eProcurement and P2P system, Epsys, can support any business as the central ordering function. What’s more, it’s a fully flexible solution and can be designed to meet the specific needs of our client!”

3. How are you and your team supporting your healthcare clients to reopen?

“I’m sure we can all appreciate that it’s been an incredibly challenging time for healthcare.

As we return to normal though, the Healthcare sector will use this time to regrow their admission so, the team and I have been supporting our Healthcare clients to consolidate and maintain consistency and quality across their entire supply chain.

We’ve been reviewing their food strategy and working on recipe banks and dining experiences and have also been hosting plant-based food sessions to help guide them in that area.”

4. How are you and your team supporting your education clients to reopen?

“Following a request from a university to share our industry experience, we hosted a ‘A safe return to on-campus catering’ virtual session with colleges of a university.

 The virtual session was designed to help the colleges understand the government requirements of re-opening a catering facility as well as remaining compliant and Covid-safe. We covered things like new processes that needed to be implemented such as new ways of working and new cleaning procedures. These sessions that focuses on helping our clients to reopen are just one of the many added benefits of working with Foodbuy and selecting Foodbuy as a procurement partner.”

5. How are you supporting your university clients with their sustainability journey?

“Now more than ever, sustainability is high on the agenda for universities.

We support our clients to source sustainable food, providing full transparency of their supply chain,

we also provide our clients access to a mix of local businesses and smaller producers, giving them freedom of choice when it comes to where exactly their produce comes from – plus it allows students the chance to acquire a real taste of home!  

We’re also supporting their journey into plant-based food, a movement that is now really popular amongst students. We have introduced vegetarian specialist suppliers and we’re also working closely with a Food to Go supplier to launch a great range of root-based and vegetarian grab and go items.”

Sustainable, nutritious food and high-quality non-food products shouldn’t be a chore to source. A partnership with Foodbuy provides clients with access to an abundance of local and nationwide suppliers as well as full transparency across the entire operation.

It’s never too late to reimagine your procurement strategy. Contact us here to start the conversation!