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NATURALLY HEALTHY www.gourmetnews.com n SEPTEMBER 2019 n GOURMET NEWS NH 4 6 Natural Products Industry Alliance Pitches in for Disaster Relief By Lorrie Baumann Organic Valley and Dr. Bronner's have teamed up with United Peace Relief and Grassroots Alliance to form the Grassroots Aid Partner- ship with the goal of bringing natural food producers to- gether in a formal way to provide an ongoing resource to help people who've been affected by disasters such as California's Camp Fire. That fire burned the town of Para- dise, California, and killed at least 85 people, including five firefighters, last year and continues to affect survivors who still haven't found new stable housing. United Peace Relief is a nonprofit organization that provides volunteers to re- spond to disasters with humanitarian relief, while Grassroots Alliance is a charity organ- ization dedicated to directing resources to or- ganizations focused on alleviating hunger in the U.S. and in disaster zones throughout the world. Clovis Siemon is leading the effort on be- half of Organic Valley. While his day job with the company doesn't involve natural disasters, the company stood behind him when he formed and managed a relief kitchen that fed thousands per day after Hur- ricane Katrina. Since then, Organic Valley has continued to respond. "I led Organic Val- ley to disasters, but Organic Valley has kept responding, disaster after disaster, over the last 14 years," he said. While his and Organic Valley's early ef- forts to provide disaster relief were ad hoc, over the past few years, the company team working on the efforts has gained orga- nizational skills and be- come part of a network that works with other disaster relief organizations such as the Salvation Army and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency to fill in the gaps to meet human needs after a disaster. Now they think they're ready to involve other natural food companies in the effort, Siemon said. "Three years ago, when Organic Valley gave to a disaster, we'd be all alone – it would be us giving di- rectly to one 501(c)3 organ- ization," he said. "Now we're bringing a lot more re- sources to the table.... we felt more comfortable inviting the rest of the industry in be- cause, as a cooperative, we believe in collaboration, and because we felt confident that this is something that we can make work." The Grassroots Aid Partnership will con- tinue to work with other organizations, leav- ing them to take the lead in emergency response but then joining in once the gaps have made themselves felt and then continuing to help for a month or more to help rebuild the affected communities. "We figure out the needs and pitch in," Siemon said. "We've been building kitchens and doing distributions for years. The forma- tion of the Grassroots Aid Partnership is to support those efforts." The new organization's focus – at least for now – is disasters within the U.S., but Siemon expects that the partnership will begin working on an international scale within a few years, since some of the volun- teers who are involved with Grassroots Aid Partnership are already also involved in in- ternational disaster relief efforts. "We're try- ing to start humbly," Siemon said. "But we're growing to meet the need." While each disaster presents its own challenges, the human need for safe, healthy food is a constant, and both Or- ganic Valley and Dr. Bronner's already had resources that they could put to work help- ing out in an e m e r g e n c y. Organic Val- ley has shipped dairy products into the Camp Fire area for months to help. "Dr Bronner's sends sanitation materials. Patagonia Provisions, Nancy's Yogurt, Lotus Foods, Clif Bar and others have also committed to sending goods," Siemon said. Both Dr. Bronner's and Organic Valley have mo- bile kitchens that are ordi- narily used for event marketing, but in disas- ters, the companies are sending them out for re- lief efforts. "Dr. Bron- ner's owns a big kitchen that can feed 10,000 people a day," Siemon said. "They built the kitchen to feed people at Burning Man, but the rest of the year, it does disas- ter relief on request. Organic Valley has a smaller kitchen that will feed about 1,000 people a day." Sanderson Farms has also helped out when refrigeration is needed, he added. "Sanderson Farms has been very active and will often send a semi with chicken in it, and they'll leave the semi for the disaster to use," he said. "It's a great example of how we break down borders. When it comes to dis- asters, everyone's in it to give." The new organization has gone first to the natural foods industry as it puts together the resources to make this an ongoing effort, Siemon said. "We were well connected there.... In this time of rebuilding, it's really important to give people the healthiest foods they can have to renourish them.... We are also trying distinctly to find food companies with healthy products, but we're not picky about whether they're organic. It just hap- pens that we started with the natural foods sector." There's also room for food retailers to get involved by cross-loading goods or lending refrigerated trucks, Siemon said. "Often we just need a parking lot to set up in," he said. "We're big fans of everyone trying to help out." Briton Brings Taste for Bangers to American Shores By Lorrie Baumann Jolly Posh Foods got started in the early years of the 21st century (2009) with a trans- Atlantic love story. Nick Spencer, the com- pany's owner, was born and raised in the United Kingdom, grew up and started work- ing for Ernst & Young in London. That's what he was doing when he met Connie, a Chicago native, in a London bar. Sparks flew. The couple dated long-distance for three years until Spencer could persuade Ernst & Young to transfer him to New York. Connie moved there from Chicago to join him, and they eventually married. Then, late in 2009, in the midst of the Great Recession, Spencer's New York as- signment with Ernst & Young had ended, and the couple decided that they'd move back to Chicago to be closer to Connie's family and to start a little family of their own. "It wasn't the best year for either of us to be looking for work, so we decided to start our own companies," Spencer said. Connie opened an independent law prac- tice, and Spencer started thinking about what he could do that wouldn't involve stepping back into the corporate world and that would take advantage of Chicago's strength as a manufacturing and trade center for the food processing industry. "Nothing is easy, but I thought I'd start with something that, on the surface of it, sounded rather simple," he said. "I was in the right place." He'd already realized, over the few years he'd lived in New York with Connie, that he was missing the good British food that he'd enjoyed in London. The "British food" he'd been offered in the United States reminded him of the nation's historical cuisine – the stodgy "meat and two veg" that had come to characterize cooking in the British and Irish isles after World War II's deprivations and rationing had come to an end but the post- war hardships remained. But over the past few decades, Britain has seen a culinary revolution led by chefs pas- sionate about resurrecting British culinary traditions with fresh ingredients and superior technique. "It was getting really, really good," Spencer said. "The presentation and quality of food that's either British or Irish that's available in the American market does- n't reflect the modern version of home." Spencer decided that his new business would introduce Chicagoans to the modern British take on a couple of foods already fa- miliar to them – sausages and bacon. He made some bangers and took them out to farmers markets, then opened a little grocery store in 2012, then a little cafe and then a bigger restaurant near Wrigley Field. "We were having kids at the time – we now have three," he said. "We decided to get out of the restaurant business and focus on the wholesale business, which is now the full-time effort." His Jolly Posh product line comprises five products – two flavors of Bangers, a Back Bacon made with pork loin, and Black Pud- ding (blood sausage) and White Pudding (pork and oatmeal sausage). His banger sausages come in two different flavors: the classic Traditional Pork Bangers seasoned with white pepper, nutmeg and ginger and a Pork and Herb Banger that's seasoned with sage, thyme and parsley. "We stuff them in natural pork casings, and when you cook them, they're plump, juicy and nicely sized," Spencer said. "When you cook them, it's just like buying them from your local butcher back home." The fully-cooked bangers pack- aged for retail sale have five links in a 12- ounce package that retails for $7.99. "Microwave it, fry it, bake it – whatever you fancy," Spencer said. "All you have to do is warm it up." Jolly Posh also offers Back Bacon, bacon that's made from the loin of the hog – essen- tially a thinly-sliced pork chop – so it's a lot leaner than American bacon. "It's cured and not smoked for a lovely, meaty texture and flavor," Spencer said. The 8-ounce package retails for $6.99 to $7.99, and a larger foodservice pack is also avail- able. The final two products in the range include the Black Pudding and White Pud- ding, which are generally eaten as part of a full Irish breakfast, Spenser said. "One fun fact about the bangers is that in Britain, we don't really have a concept of the breakfast sausage, so we'll eat bangers for breakfast, lunch or dinner," he added. For breakfast, the main item on the plate might be bangers, while at lunchtime, the bangers might appear in panini or sandwiches. At dinner, the meal might consist of bangers and mash, which is bangers served with a gener- ous helping of mashed potatoes, garden peas and gravy. Bacon is likely to appear on the table in sandwiches, in a pasta carbonara or even on top of a hamburger or a dish of mac- aroni and cheese, Spencer said. Jolly Posh Foods products are distributed nationally by European Imports and Sysco, in the Midwest by Fortune Gourmet and Great Western Beef and by Food Innovations in Florida. For more information, email nick@ jollyposhfoods.com.

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