Bostock's Organic Kitchen

In a move to improve staff health and wellbeing and to attract and retain good staff, New Zealand’s largest organic apple grower has built a modern, stylish kitchen/cafeteria and now offers its staff low cost healthy lunches made largely from organic ingredients.

Bostock New Zealand is a diverse, vertically integrated group of companies based in the Hawke’s Bay. Its philosophy is to “grow, pack and market high quality squash, onions, grain, ice cream and organic apples in an eco-friendly and sustainable manner”.

John Bostock pioneered organic apple growing on a commercial scale in NZ. In 1996 he began the conversion of his substantial orchard holdings to organic production. His business expanded, and today JB Organics has over 400ha in organic production of apples, onions, squash, kiwifruit and grains.

The company also has financial interests in organic free range chicken production, fruit processing and marketing of high-end NZ foods.

About 10 years ago John and his late wife Vicki realised there was a contradiction between the healthy food that the company produced and the diet and lifestyle of many of their staff. With around 300 permanent workers and up to 600 at the peak of harvest, they saw many who appeared overweight and were aware of others who had diabetes and were otherwise less than healthy.

“We were selling some of the most valuable and expensive produce in the world, but at the same time our workers were often eating junk food, so we decided it was very important to offer them healthy food for a whole lot of reasons,” says John. “One was to sustain them during the working day and also to help with life and health problems such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, behavioural problems and learning difficulties.”

“We wanted them to understand what a healthy diet is all about and what it does for them because we think nutrition is really important. We were seeing so many people who would typically have a pie and fizzy drink for lunch and then by three o’clock the sugar would run out and they would get the shakes and they would have to go and get another infusion of sugar to get them through the rest of the day. That was playing havoc with their insulin levels and they were getting diabetes.”

“For some of our staff the only vegetable they had ever eaten was a potato, so we wanted them to understand how sustaining a healthy meal could be. About three years ago we began to plan total refurbishing of the staff cafeteria including a proper commercial kitchen staffed with trained people. We finally opened it earlier this year.”

Bostock’s Organic Kitchen offers cooked lunches that are made mostly from organic components. There are two plate sizes that cost either $7 or $9, which is a subsidised price for staff.

“For that they get plenty of protein – maybe organic fish, lamb, chicken or beef – some vegetables and salad, and we supply jugs of water and ask them not to use fizzy drinks. In fact we have removed all the soft drink dispensers from the property,” says John.

“Typically the meals have a low glycaemic index and after a sustaining meal with vegetables and protein, the workers have found that they are able to last through the day much better.”

The reaction from many staff has been very positive and for some of them it is really changing their lives – they are embracing the ideas and taking them home to their families.

“One guy has lost an enormous amount of weight; others who used to have gout and problems associated with that have found that it is disappearing and so we are seeing an immediate benefit,” says John.

“But more than that it is improving the atmosphere in the place. We are looking after our workers, trying to feed them healthily, trying to look after them and train them, making it a good place to work and it’s really good for recruitment and retention of staff.”

The company has renovated their existing cafeteria, put in a commercial kitchen and made the dining area very pleasant with a “living wall”, a wooden floor and joinery and furniture made from organic hardwoods from a sustainable source. The facility started in February 2015 and was officially opened in June. Currently it is catering for around 90 people per day.

“We hope that we will be able to feed a big chunk of our workforce, maybe up to 200 in the peak season. They won’t all be fed on site, we have takeaway meals available,” says John.

“It is also open to the public and we are getting very good support from local businesses. It is a bit of novel idea to have a commercial cafe inside a working environment and quite a few people come some distance in vans to have lunch here.”

“We hope to have more in the peak of the season and who knows, we may not be able to cope, although we have a lot of seasonal staff who prefer to prepare their own meals and for some people from overseas even $7 or $9 is too much.”

Chef Arnaud Vallee was trained in France and has been in New Zealand for about 15 years. He joined the company in April 2015 and has enjoyed the challenge of preparing menus that are likely to appeal to a range of people from accountants to forklift drivers to mechanics and orchard workers.

“We prepare a different meal each day and there is very little repetition. We put the menu online for the coming week so staff can see what is on offer. An office worker might not need as much as an orchard worker, but we have two sizes of meal and that seems to suit them,” he says.

“John’s idea was to offer them a healthy balanced lunch that they would all enjoy for the same price that they might buy a pie and a slice or a fizzy drink, and so far the feedback has been really good.”

A good proportion of permanent staff eat regularly at the cafeteria, others a few times a week while others still bring or buy their own lunches. “That’s cool”, says John.

“We are currently putting in a fair bit of our own money but the financial side is not the only consideration. There are many more benefits from this particular department than just making money – it’s creating atmosphere, ambience and goodwill inside the company that is huge,” he says.

“Part of the idea of my wife and I was to offer workers organic food that didn’t cost them a fortune, and we are picking up that balance. This improves the workplace and workers’ health and gives us the opportunity to recruit and retain like-minded people, so the non-financial benefits are adding a lot of value for us.”