Planet positive and totally tasty!

We may be small but we aim big with our planet- and community-positive actions.

Sustainability

We love food and we love planet Earth and so it follows we are committed to doing business responsibly. Cooking for little children means we think about their future and we take very seriously the challenge of making as little environmental impact as possible. While we work hard to do our bit, we are always trying to do better. We aim to be a force for good in everything we do.

‘Vegetables are the foods that do us the most good and our planet the least harm.’ Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. We couldn’t put it any better Hugh!

All the meals we make for nursery children are vegetarian. Producing plant-based foods requires less land, fewer resources and results in vastly fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Our ingredients are simple, unprocessed and delicious. It is well known that cultures that eat a good diet, rich in vegetables, pulses and simple grains, have some of the best health and longevity globally - this is how we cook.

Pulses are an essential ingredient in our kitchen, from haricot and cannellini beans to chickpeas and lentils. Not only are they a great source of protein and packed with vitamins and antioxidants, pulse crops also have one of the lowest carbon footprints of any food group.

Fruit and vegetables are delivered to our kitchen fresh from our greengrocer daily, exactly what we need for each day: no food waste here! We use as much of each vegetable as possible and any veggie waste we do produce is collected by the Wimbledon Guild and composted in their community garden, which grows produce for their subsidised café.

We chat with our greengrocer Ross each week to find out what is plentiful and in season – this makes sense for the environment and means we are eating vegetables when they are at their most delicious. We happily buy any ‘wonky’ vegetables that won’t sell in his shop. The flavour is fantastic and we are stopping good food going in the bin. Ross sends most of our vegetables without plastic packaging too, hooray!

Sean, our driver, delivers once a week to each nursery to minimise time spent on the road and stops off on the way to buy our dry goods to avoid extra journeys. We work closely with the nursery teams to make sure we send just the right amount of food for the children, reducing food waste at the nurseries. We package our food in compostable kraft cartons and reusable, recyclable plastic containers, which we process and reuse. The boxes are delivered in reusable mesh bags - we avoid using single use plastic wherever we can! The water we wash our vegetables in feeds our herb garden and we save our tins for gardening.

Purchasing is planned carefully to avoid unnecessary deliveries from couriers and we make judgements on suppliers depending on how the food is packaged. Less plastic please!

We grow herbs in planters outside our kitchen made from recycled wooden pallets; we recycle our used paper into notepads for the office; we are big fans of upcycling, recycling and reusing; and half the team walk or cycle to work – every little bit counts.

Our Team

We are a small team with a very big heart. Everyone is important, valuable and valued. The Two Teaspoons kitchen is a busy, bustling place. We all have our jobs but are very happy to help each other out, from washing up to making deliveries, stirring pots to, everybody’s favourite, sampling the dish of the day. After a busy morning cooking, we down spoons and have lunch together, bounce ideas around and discuss menus and recipes over a steaming bowl of Two Teaspoons soup (no surplus goes to waste here).

Staff are trained upon joining Two Teaspoons and offered regular training updates. We are a Living Wage employer, committed to paying a wage based on the cost of living to all our staff. We all have families, and the responsibilities and curveballs they bring, and so are offered flexible working when the need arises. We work hard but also enjoy some downtime together, from Christmas wreath making to summer BBQs. And a week doesn’t go by without someone bringing in a home-baked cake.

Our Community

We are a member of Sustainable Merton and donate regularly to Merton’s Community Fridge, an initiative which aims to redistribute surplus food from local businesses and food growers, ultimately stopping tonnes of good quality food from going to waste.

We have a close relationship with local charity, the Wimbledon Guild and run annual fundraising events together, such as children's cookery classes and workshops, raising funds and increasing awareness of the benefits of eating healthy, nutritious food. We’ve run cookery classes for vulnerable adults, donated food to our local women’s refuge and we are always happy to volunteer our time to help with these events. We firmly believe our business should make a positive contribution to the community it operates in.